Until recently, Planned Parenthood has received the largest share of its income from government funding. Though the organization would argue otherwise, cutting even half of Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded income would leave it operable.
One step in doing so comes as the Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump administration will freeze Department of Health and Human Services family-planning grants as it investigates the funding’s involvement with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The move would follow President Donald Trump’s executive order “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
Planned Parenthood feels particularly targeted, and rightfully so: Of the groups receiving the soon-frozen $27.5 million worth of HHS grants, Planned Parenthood affiliates collect a considerable sum. In fiscal 2023, the organization received $20.8 million from the Title X National Family Planning Services Grant.
Apart from actual dollars, the administration’s method is a good start. DEI investigation is a solid excuse: The executive order set a precedent for cracking down on the program a while ago, and by now, the public is used to the severe cuts that accompany it. The freeze pushes similar organizations that either work with or similarly to Planned Parenthood into the light. But Planned Parenthood is the giant of the abortion industry, so the major benefit remains open consideration of its own federal funding, most drastically from Medicaid.
Planned Parenthood received $699.3 million of federal funding in fiscal 2023. If $20 million was its HHS grant total, that leaves more than $678 million gained from other government sources, primarily Medicaid reimbursements. The Hyde Amendment restricts government funding for abortions. So, when Planned Parenthood franchises accept Medicaid insurance and the reimbursements that result, monetary fungibility allows them to funnel it toward abortion efforts. This transaction poses no problem for Planned Parenthood, as its total income has exceeded $1.5 billion for at least the past five years. Private funding contributed $997.5 million of the organization’s more than $2 billion of income in fiscal 2023.
Still, Democrats worry eternally about the fate of Medicaid. And where Republicans split, some want it mostly untouched, some are open to setting conditions for examining it, and others want it cut. None of the talks about it frees up the billions of dollars needed for the budget resolution the House passed recently. One option is glaring: Cutting out Planned Parenthood’s consumption of Medicaid dollars would offer hundreds of millions of dollars.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S FEDERALLY FUNDED MESS
It’s a small but obvious start, given that Planned Parenthood does not need federal funds. A 2015 investigation into this question by the House Oversight Committee found Planned Parenthood to be self-sustaining and its leisure spending excessive. On top of that, Planned Parenthood CEOs receive exorbitant salaries averaging $352,661, per a 2025 report from the American Life League.
Common-sense avenues like these for defunding Planned Parenthood wait to be trodden by the administration. Still, the HHS move is clever and shows the committed interests of the social conservatives close to Trump. However, Medicaid reimbursements are a priority. Taxpayers not only do not need to be funding Planned Parenthood, but they also should not be forced to violate their consciences in the process. Defunding Planned Parenthood might be even more of a no-brainer than undoing DEI.
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