The USCCB urged Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and ‘gender transitions’ following the advancement of House Republicans’ budget bill.
(LifeSiteNews) -- Congress should pass President Donald Trump's budget bill that defunds Planned Parenthood and transgender drugs and surgeries for minors, the United States bishops' conference said.
"Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and ‘gender transition’ services with their tax dollars," according to a joint statement from Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo and Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron.
Bishop Thomas is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities and Bishop Barron chairs the USCCB's Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth.
On Sunday night, the House Budget Committee passed a reconciliation bill that advances conservative priorities on human life, gender, the border, and energy policy.
"For decades, Planned Parenthood has received government money and offered low-income women one terrible option: to end the lives of their babies," the prelates stated in a news release. "More recently, they have used the same taxpayer funds to expand their destructive offerings, by promoting gender ideology and providing puberty blockers and hormones to minors, turning them into lifelong patients in the process." "We encourage greater support for authentic, life-affirming health care providers that serve mothers and their children in need," the bishops stated. "We urge all members of Congress and the Administration to work in good faith to protect vulnerable women and children from mutilating ‘gender transition’ services and the scourge of abortion."The budget bill passed through two House committees in the past week, overcoming objections from Republicans who want to continue to fund Planned Parenthood. On the other hand, some conservative congressmen have urged their peers to go further in cutting spending.
Defunding Planned Parenthood has the support of both pro-life groups and key political leaders, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
Students for Life Action sent a letter to legislators on May 16 urging them to support the bill.
“We implore you not to let this historic initiative to defund Planned Parenthood and all abortion vendors fail now,” Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins wrote. “The choice is yours, and we ask that you choose to advance the current bill language all the way to President Trump’s desk for signature. But know that the American people made their choice when they rejected the most pro-abortion ticket in American history to ask you in the GOP and President Trump to lead on Life.”
Both Vice President JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson have previously expressed support for defunding the abortion giant of all taxpayer money.
“I would like to. That’s for sure,” Johnson said in December 2024 when asked by Fox News about cutting government funding for Planned Parenthood. However, he said “we have got to build consensus to have the votes to do that.”
As LifeSiteNews previously reported:
In his first term, President Donald Trump never fully defunded Planned Parenthood. However, he did deprive them of tens of millions of dollars by prohibiting abortion vendors from receiving Title X 'family planning' funds.While Trump and running mate JD Vance said they want abortion drugs legal and want the issue of killing preborn babies left up to the state, the campaign appeared to support defunding Planned Parenthood.
‘On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortion,’ Vance told the media after a rally in October.
Johnson recently reiterated his support for defunding Planned Parenthood.
“(The budget) could be used as a vehicle to redirect funds away from big abortion and to federally qualified health centers,” the speaker said in April.
