During the second Trump administration, with a unified Congress, Republicans are looking to hold abortion giants and the abortion industry accountable. On Wednesday, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) is introducing a bill known as the Abortion Funding Awareness Act of 2025, explained by the bill's text and shared exclusively with Townhall as one to "require States to report information on Medicaid payments to abortion providers."
The bill requires every state to publish a report that shows what federal funding that state has used for abortions. That report would be due no later than 60 days after the end of the fiscal year after the enactment of such a bill. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) will receive that report, which will also be published to that State's website.
According to the bill, the report must include the amount of the payment, a comparison of that amount in any prior fiscal year, the number of abortions performed during the fiscal year by that provider, the gestational age for such abortions performed, and the abortion method used.
Congress is to be involved as well. No longer than 90 days after the end of the fiscal year, the HHS Secretary is to submit the report to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Finance, as well as publish on the Department of HHS website a report with the State reports and a summary of those reports.
A one-pager for the bill, also shared with Townhall, further details why such a bill is necessary to rein in the abortion industry. While the Hyde Amendment may have been in place each fiscal year since 1977, 20 states still allow for Medicaid to fund abortions.
"These states are allowing taxpayer money to pay for abortions, with no way for Americans to track how many abortions they have paid for or the gestational age of the unborn child that was killed. Most Americans on both sides of the aisle agree that the government should not pay for abortions," the one-pager explains.
In a statement shared exclusively with Townhall, Banks spoke to this while also highlighting the abuse of the abortion industry. "A majority of Americans agree that taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund abortions. My bill exposes states that abuse tax dollars this way, aiming to protect unborn lives in the process," he shared.
Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) is introducing the bill in the House. She too had a similar message. "The Abortion Funding Awareness Act exposes how states are funneling Medicaid money to abortion providers. For too long, the left has used loopholes and a lack of transparency to prop up Planned Parenthood and others who profit from taking innocent lives. This bill says enough is enough," she shared.
Polling indeed shows that Americans support the Hyde Amendment. A Marist/Knights of Columbus poll from January specifically shows that 57 percent of Americans oppose or strongly oppose "using tax dollars to pay for abortion."
The bill is supported by Americans United for Life, Students for Life, SBA Pro-Life America, and Concerned Women for America.
Medicaid payments to abortion providers, namely Planned Parenthood, which performs more abortions than any entity in the country, have certainly been scrutinized as of late. There has been a funding freeze in recent weeks put in place from the Trump administration, as we've been covering. The U.S. Supreme Court also last week heard a case on whether South Carolina can defund Planned Parenthood when it comes to Medicaid.
According to Planned Parenthood's own annual report for 2022-2023, they made close to $700 million from taxpayers via "Government Health Services Reimbursements & Grants." That same report showed Planned Parenthood keeps performing an increasing amount of abortions, 392,715 for that time frame, to be exact. More legitimate medical services that the organization provides have meanwhile gone down over the years.
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