This is Why Legislative Majorities Matter!
Legislative majorities matter! While the Republican led Congress slashes Planned Parenthood Funding, Virginia Democrats push expansive abortion rights.
The Republican-led House of Representatives just passed a budget (the “Big, Beautiful Bill”) that not only makes permanent tax cuts for working families, but also includes deep cuts to Planned Parenthood, signaling a decisive move toward limiting federal support for abortion providers. On the other hand, Virginia’s Democratic majority has not only blocked efforts to restrict public funding for abortions in limited instances but has also advanced some of the most expansive abortion-related legislation in the country.
At the federal level, Republicans in Congress achieved a long-sought policy victory by including provisions in the budget bill that slash funding for Planned Parenthood. Though federal law already prohibits direct taxpayer funding of abortions in most cases through the Hyde Amendment, Planned Parenthood still receives substantial federal funding for other services such as gender reassignment services and STD testing.
The government provides public funding to Planned Parenthood either as reimbursements for Medicaid services and grants from the Department of Health and Human Services. In Fiscal Year 2015, the Planned Parenthood received $390 million in federal and state Medicaid reimbursements according to the Congressional Budget Office, which is the organization’s single largest revenue source.
In its 2022-2023 annual report, Planned Parenthood received $792.2 million, or over $2 million per day, in taxpayer funding in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. That was a $92.9 million increase from the organization’s previous report and accounted for 39% of its overall revenue.
For conservatives, cutting this funding is a way to reduce the influence and reach of an organization that is central to the abortion industry.
The strategy is clear: even without a national abortion ban, reducing financial support for providers like Planned Parenthood can limit access indirectly. Supporters of the budget cuts also contend that public funds should be redirected to community health centers that do not perform abortions.
Virginia Democrats seek to expand the abortion industry’s grip on vulnerable women.
While Republicans in Washington were restricting abortion funding, pro-abortion legislators in Virginia General Assembly are attempting to permit the Kermit Gosnell’s of the world to operate unchecked in Virginia. When a provision was introduced in the state budget to prohibit taxpayer funding for late-term abortions in cases where the fetus may have a developmental abnormality, Virginia’s Democratic majority refused to include it.
But Virginia Democrats went further than just blocking restrictions. They actively advanced legislation that would enshrine broad abortion rights into state law. Among the most controversial proposals were bills establishing a right to obtain abortion-inducing drugs (abortifacients), voluntary sterilization, and even a constitutional amendment that would guarantee access to abortion for anyone, at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of age or provider qualifications.
These measures go beyond protecting choice and venture into space that eliminates virtually all regulatory guardrails. Under the proposed constitutional amendment, minors could access abortion without parental notification or consent, and late-term abortions could become unregulated. Under their legislation, which was vetoed by Governor Youngkin, abortifacients would be treated as commonplace as Tylenol with no regard for the harms these drugs will cause to women.
The contrast between federal Republican efforts and Virginia Democrats’ agenda could not be starker. In Congress, Republicans are systematically working to reduce the financial and institutional footprint of abortion providers. In Virginia, Democrats are not only defending access but pushing to embed it in law and the state constitution with as few limitations as possible.
For voters and activists, the message is clear: in post-Roe America, where you live—and who controls your legislature—will determine how the life of preborn babies will be treated.
If you want a Virginia that protects babies in the womb, and defunds the abortion industry, it begins at the ballot box this fall.
