On July 3, Congress passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and on July 4, President Trump signed it into law. The bill fulfills a long-desired goal of the pro-life movement: removing Medicaid funding from abortion clinics for any health-related service. Matthew Hennessey, writing for The Wall Street Journal, called it "The most significant pro-life law ever."

The country's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, performed over 402,230 abortions nationwide in 2023. In Massachusetts, PP performed 9,462 abortions in 2024, up from 8,351 in 2023. The Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates PP's 2023 market share of abortions in Massachusetts as 34.7%. Massachusetts uses taxpayer monies to fund Medicaid abortions.

Hennessey explained the bill's effect. While federal law disallows the use of taxpayer money to pay for abortion, the money is fungible. Planned Parenthood uses the Medicaid funding it gets for cancer screenings and mental health counseling, then uses that money to pay for abortions. One-third of Planned Parenthood's funding comes from the federal government. Before the passage of the bill, Planned Parenthood claimed that 200 of its 600 health centers would be forced to close.

Planned Parenthood's reaction to the bill was the focus of a July 3 Boston Globe article, "'They're playing politics with people's lives': Trump's big bill would slash Planned Parenthood's  Mass. budget in half." Jonathan Saltzman reported, "The Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts says it would lose $14 million, roughly half its operating budget, as a result of deep Medicaid cuts in the bill. Dr. Luu Ireland, the league’s chief medical officer, said about 40 percent of the 30,000 patients who receive services from Planned Parenthood each year are insured by MassHealth, the Medicaid program for the poor and people with disabilities in Massachusetts. 'They’re playing politics with people’s lives,' Ireland said before the vote. 'It saddens me that the Legislature does not see the real humans that are being affected by this decision-making.'

According to its audited financial statements, PPLM had $30.2MM in total revenue for the year ended June 30, 2023, of which net patient services revenue comprised $11.5M and contract revenue comprised $3.4MM. Noteworthy is the amount Planned Parenthood pays for salaries: $13,423,575 in 2023, up from $11,974,735 in 2022.

On July 7, National Review reported that "Planned Parenthood filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts claiming that defunding a corporation from federal contracts is a constitutionally forbidden bill of attainder. Judge Indira Talwani immediately issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) ordering the federal government to continue Medicaid disbursements for two weeks in the customary manner and framework to Planned Parenthood affiliates."

It is hard to forecast whether Judge Talwani's order can continue to protect Planned Parenthood's bottom line. National Review reported, "On June 26, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that only the executive branch, not the courts, is empowered to decide when states may remove Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid program. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of South Carolina in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, affirming the state’s right to exclude abortion providers from its state Medicaid program."

Written by Helen Cross, MCFL Design Specialist and Editor.