Federal funding dilemma

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Good news for the pro-life movement.

Conservative calls to defund Planned Parenthood have gained some traction in recent months. But it won’t necessarily be easy to give that money to pro-life pregnancy centers.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has our story, written by Bekah McCallum.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: The abortion industry has faced pushback at the federal level recently. A few quick examples…

Less than two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration, conservatives in Congress reintroduced the Defund Planned Parenthood Act. The bill still awaits committee review.

Then, earlier this month, the Trump administration began withholding a portion of federal funding from 13 Planned Parenthood affiliates. The funding comes from a program designed to subsidize things like birth control and screening for sexually transmitted infections.

And, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that questions whether states can exclude Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider.

Of the roughly $700 million dollars that Planned Parenthood received from the government in 2023, most of that came from Medicaid payments.

ISRAEL: And so that's not funding that is allocated to Planned Parenthood.

Melanie Israel is a scholar with the Heritage Foundation.

ISRAEL: That's them providing services to people who are eligible for Medicaid and then getting reimbursed for it.

She says that if the Supreme Court rules against Planned Parenthood, it won’t be the same as the government taking back a fixed sum of money.

ISRAEL: It’s defunding in the sense that you will no longer be allowed to participate in this program.

Some pro-life groups would like to see Planned Parenthood money channelled to pregnancy resource centers instead. On April 17th, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention issued a statement calling for taxpayer dollars to be redirected to pro-life centers.

That might be easier said than done. For one thing, most pregnancy resource centers aren’t eligible to serve as Medicaid providers. That’s because most pro-life centers don’t provide the kinds of gynecological services often covered by Medicaid like cancer screenings and birth control.

ISRAEL: They can do ultrasounds, but when it's time to actually have a regular doctor's appointment, they're going to be referring women, you know, to affordable options. They're not necessarily doing those kinds of things in-house.

Even though Medicaid couldn’t help the majority of pro-life centers, some could get funding from Title X. This program allocates funding for services like contraception and STD testing for low-income individuals. It’s one of the main government grants Planned Parenthood receives. But it would be difficult to redirect this funding to volunteer-led pregnancy centers.

ISRAEL: The process of applying for those grants and staying in compliance I mean that is a really time-consuming process. A lot of organizations have people who work for them full time, specifically just handling grants. It’s a massive undertaking.

That’s just one reason why most pregnancy centers rely primarily on private donations.

According to Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, some pro-life groups refuse government help as a matter of conviction.

GODSEY: Many centers are usually opposed to government funding. There are those who take a...They take a stand that they're not going to ask the government to do this because of that local support and their conviction that the local community, particularly the faith community, should be the ones stepping in and helping in this manner, in this way.

Still, support for pregnancy centers is growing in some conservative states. Eighteen states offer alternatives to abortion funding. There’s also a program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—or TANF. It provides federal dollars that four states direct towards pro-life centers. During the Biden administration, officials proposed a rule banning pro-life centers from receiving TANF funds. Katie Glenn Daniel is director of legal affairs and policy counsel at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

DANIEL: So that's another funding stream that under Joe Biden pregnancy centers felt either they actively became ineligible, or they worried that there would be requirements to refer or counsel or say positive things about elective abortion if they participated in the program.

The Biden administration withdrew the proposed TANF change in late 2024. Legislative efforts could protect pregnancy centers from funding discrimination. Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey introduced the “Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act” in March.

SMITH: Notwithstanding any other law, the federal government, and any individual or entity that receives federal financial assistance including any state or local government may not penalize or retaliate against any entity because the entity offers life-affirming support and resources to women facing unexpected pregnancy.

But for now, some pregnancy centers remain wary of applying for government support. Jim Harden is CEO of CompassCare Pregnancy Services in New York. He estimates the organization’s five centers provide upwards of $3 million worth of free medical care to women each year. CompassCare does not receive any government money, and Harden doesn’t anticipate that changing anytime soon.

HARDEN: We could theoretically apply for funding, but we'd have to submit to the state's regulations around their definition of comprehensive reproductive health care. There, the state's definition of comprehensive reproductive healthcare includes abortifacient contraception, abortion referrals, and abortion provision.

Harden believes that pregnancy centers will continue to serve mothers and families. But he agreed that funding, as long as it doesn’t come with requirements to endorse abortion, could help the cause.

HARDEN: Pregnancy centers basically do everything except for abortion. And meanwhile, abortionists do nothing but abortion, and for a fee, and we do everything for free. We should be the ones getting all this money.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown

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