Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former president Donald Trump’s running mate, said that Trump, if elected, would seek to end federal money for Planned Parenthood.
“We don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions,” Vance told RealClearPolitics on Saturday night. “That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”
Vance’s comments on Saturday against one of the biggest reproductive health care providers in the nation stand in stark contrast to recent positioning by himself, Trump and other Republicans on the issue of reproductive rights.
While Trump has largely taken credit for the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, and Republicans have long run on a platform to curtail reproductive rights in the country, in the last few weeks, the party has softened its messaging on the issue in an effort to appeal to moderate and independent voters. Trump has recently commented on social media that he would not sign a federal abortion ban, and that decisions about abortion should be up to the states. The change largely came after the decision to overturn Roe proved to be largely unpopular.
A large percentage of Planned Parenthood’s funding comes through Medicaid, federal grants or other programs that reimburse Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide for providing birth control as well as preventive screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases for low-income Americans who are eligible for free or cost-reduced services through the Title X family planning program.
According to the organization’s 2023 annual report, 34 percent of its revenue comes from government health services reimbursements and grants, 47 percent from private contributions and 18 percent from nongovernmental health service revenue.
In response to Vance’s comments, Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood’s super PAC, said federal funds cannot be used to provide abortion care at any point in pregnancy, and warned that taking those funds away from the organization would “rob millions of people across the country of vital, affordable care.’
Ending federal funding for “Planned Parenthood would only deepen and expand the public health crisis we’re already in thanks to Donald Trump, causing more people to suffer and die for lack of basic reproductive care,” Lawson said in a statement.
While some states like Missouri have stopped government funds to Planned Parenthood, recent Republican-led efforts to end funding to the nonprofit nationwide have been largely unsuccessful.
Spokespeople for Trump did not immediately respond to a Washington Post request for comment on Vance’s remarks about funding to Planned Parenthood.
In a statement, Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, said that Vance “made it clear” that a “Trump-Vance administration will defund Planned Parenthood and deny millions of women basic health care, including birth control, cancer screenings and even prenatal care.’
While Vance on the vice-presidential debate this week said that Republicans have “to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue,” the Ohio senator has long been critical of Planned Parenthood and access to reproductive care, saying in 2022 that he would “like abortion to be illegal nationally.”
When Trump was president from 2017 to 2021, abortion was one of his administration’s top priorities. Trump officials introduced a number of antiabortion measures, including a “gag rule” that would have made clinics ineligible for federal health funds if they provided abortions or referrals for them. They argued that federal law bans the use of money for abortions except in the case of rape or incest. That would have cut as much as $60 million in government funds from Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood sued and the rule’s implementation was tied up in court. Trump also issued an executive order to block U.S. aid to organizations in other countries that counsel or provide referrals about abortion, restricting nearly $9 billion in foreign health assistance.
The Biden administration undid the rule and rescinded the order in 2021, but many providers had already shut down in anticipation of the funding cuts, a situation that abortion rights advocates have said hurt reproductive health globally.