For Republicans, apparently, it was just to try to get pro-lifers off their backs for a year.
I found an email with a statement from Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director in Texas. You’ve likely heard her name before. She’s now a pro-life advocate, author, popular speaker, and there was even a movie made about her powerful pro-life conversion story, Unplanned.
I’m also forever pointing out that the movie was rated “R” because of the chemical-abortion scene in her bathroom. It wasn’t gratuitously bloody. One could even argue it was relatively mild. But that’s a window into abortion now. A bloody, barbaric mess, behind closed doors.
Anyway, the statement reads:
While any taxpayer money diverted away from Planned Parenthood is a good thing, defunding our nation’s largest abortion provider for just one year is not the win many of us who believe abortion is abhorrent wanted it to be. A year is enough time for many Planned Parenthood facilities to hold out to be re-funded. Some will close but Planned Parenthood as an organization has millions of dollars, wealthy donors, and could support those clinics if they choose.
I assumed it was from this year, and then saw the date on it is July 1 – which, of course, hasn’t come yet this year. It was from last year.
The email came a few days after June 28, 2025 – when I stood outside the flagship Planned Parenthood in New York – for a final time. Live Action had organized a “Defund Planned Parenthood” day and at more than 200 clinics around the country, we held placards and prayed.
It was my final time outside that Planned Parenthood – my Planned Parenthood, where I had spent more time than I even care to admit — because it had already announced it would and then did subsequently closed. It was actually already a very different experience because they were closed on the 28th, a Saturday. Saturday mornings used to be big days there – they were surgical-abortion days. Once a month there would be a prayer vigil across the street and sometimes there would be a large group of abortion advocates who would protest our prayer crassly and even with threats of violence and bold intimidation. (Yours truly was on a “wanted” sign.) But now, the former Margaret Sanger clinic was closed on Saturdays. And they had stopped doing surgical abortions there. I had long ago seen that they had clearly added gender transition work to their menu of options. And while pro-lifers weren’t a presence there like they used to be, chemical abortions were still part of their offerings.
Now it’s closed. And as grateful I am about that fact – it was something I prayed for for a long time – it’s not something I outright celebrate. You may have seen pro-life groups heralding the closures of Planned Parenthood clinics. And, again, great. But don’t be fooled. That’s largely because the brick-and-mortar clinics aren’t needed like they used to be. In a place like New York — long dubbed the abortion capital of the country, even if the likes of California are competing with the Empire State for the title — you are going to get your abortion. In fact, if you live in a state like Louisiana, which currently protects women and their babies from abortion, New York will make sure you have access to abortion.
Our governor Kathy Hochul was enthusiastic about abortion tourism — but, let’s face it: Abortion pills are simply too easy to get your hands on to warrant the effort and expense of traveling.
Now, I can’t help but think of what Abby had to say almost a year ago. The defunding of Planned Parenthood is up, and political will when it comes to Republicans and abortion can feel nonexistent. That would be an exaggeration, but only a slight one.
Last year’s dramatically titled “One Big, Beautiful Bill” defunded Planned Parenthood for one year. That’s it. That’s the big, bold pro-life GOP’s success story against the culture-of-death mammoth.
So now, the U.S. is about to celebrate its 250th birthday. Pro-life groups are hoping defunding Planned Parenthood makes it into reconciliation negotiations, but I’m not sure anyone is holding their breath. The Republicans took ending abortion in America out of their platform. Some pro-life groups have been counting the closing of Planned Parenthood clinics like trophies for a pro-life mantelpiece. That mantelpiece, however, sure wouldn’t be at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The closest that I could see would be Jennie Lichter’s office at the March for Life headquarters. And she wouldn’t do it. Because she knows better. And she’s actually committed to ending abortion in America. Which is, I suppose, why she’s unlikely to ever run for political office. She tweeted earlier this week: “Planned Parenthood recently performed a record 434K abortions in a single year, while scaling back preventive care.”
As America marks its 250th birthday on July 4, taxpayer dollars will again fund the abortion industry.
This is NOT what the American ppl want and is such an outrageous use of public funds.
Planned Parenthood recently performed a record 434K abortions in a single year, while… https://t.co/4TxdiDXHqK
— Jennie Bradley Lichter (@JennieMFL) June 17, 2026
She also re-upped some points from a year ago: “By defunding Big Abortion, we’re standing up for moms, protecting babies, and saying loud and clear: every life matters. Investing in Community Health Centers and Pregnancy Resource Centers is a powerful way to support women and babies — offering real care, real hope, and real alternatives.”
For some of us, that’s for life. For Republicans, apparently, it was just to try to get pro-lifers off their backs for a year. Some of those pro-lifers who were once heralding them have changed their tune. I’m not sure the GOP cares. Donald Trump doesn’t — and the Republicans seem to still do most of whatever he tells them to.
So where does that leave us? Pro-lifers, certainly, a movement without a party. But perhaps it always should have been that way. The political parties should want to want pro-life votes — and compete for them. We’d all be better off that way.
Though right now, one wouldn’t be crazy to wonder if there is more than one or so politician who doesn’t just want the issue to go away. Chris Smith of New Jersey is the most obvious one — of course, Chris wants it to go away, too — but only when abortion ends.
Pro-lifers may hope that something gets fixed in pre-Independence Day reconciliation negotiations. A much more robust movement will come from declaring independence from pretending the party cares about the preeminent human-rights issue of our lifetimes.