The Trump administration this week announced that they were freezing funding to Planned Parenthood for review, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. President Donald Trump himself also announced that they will "look into" the abortion giant harvesting organs from aborted babies. For over a decade now, Republicans in Congress have been on a mission to defund Planned Parenthood, and the fight still continues today. In the Senate, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) has a bill that would do just that.
On Thursday, Ernst's office sent out a press release highlighting how the senator is renewing her push for the Senate to take up her bill. Sure enough, the press release references the freeze as motivation for the push.
"Following the Trump administration’s plan to temporarily freeze and review any federal funding for Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) renewed her push for the Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act to permanently prohibit federal tax dollars from funding Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) or its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, or clinics," the press release begins by referencing.
Ernst introduced the legislation in January, around the time of the annual March for Life, as she shared to X.
The nation’s largest abortion provider should not be receiving a dime in federal funding.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) January 23, 2025
I am defunding Planned Parenthood.
https://t.co/plbvYH5YYF
Also included is a statement from the senator. "As a mother and grandmother, the fight for life is incredibly important to me, and I am committed to defending the most vulnerable among us," she said. "That’s why I will always stand up to protect taxpayer dollars from funding any organization taking the life of an unborn child. I’m glad the Trump administration is working to end to the left’s radical abortion-on-demand agenda. Now, Congress should build on this momentum and permanently end funding for Planned Parenthood by passing my Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act."
Planned Parenthood doesn't merely perform more abortions than any entity in the country, while also taking in millions of dollars each year from American taxpayers. The organization has also been accused of plenty of wrongdoing, which includes Medicaid fraud and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud.
The press release references that too. "Earlier this month, Ernst pushed the Small Business Administration (SBA) to examine how, under the Biden administration, PPFA unlawfully received millions of dollars in funding from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and had 34 loans forgiven," it mentions.
According to their 2022-2023 annual report, Planned Parenthood took in nearly $700 million from "Government Health Services Reimbursements & Grants." Further, Planned Parenthood keeps performing an increasing amount of abortions, 392,715 to be exact.
This isn't the pro-life bill that Ernst is pushing to get passed. "Ernst is also leading the Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act to require all fifty states to report the numbers of abortions performed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This transparency will help ensure that no federal funds are going to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider," the press release concludes.
Currently, 48 areas report to the CDC, which includes 46 states plus Washington, DC and New York City. However, California, Maryland, New Hampshire, and New Jersey do not report their abortion numbers. Three of those states, California, Maryland, and New Jersey, are among the most pro-abortion states in the country, with no restriction on the procedure whatsoever. California also has the highest population of any state in the country, meaning that the CDC's abortion statistics may be seriously lacking.