EXCLUSIVE — Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) plans to leave a top priority of the anti-abortion movement out of a party-line bill Republicans hope to pass in the coming weeks, the latest sign GOP leadership is resisting attempts to expand the scope of the legislation beyond immigration enforcement.
Anti-abortion organizations are urging House and Senate leaders to renew a one-year ban on Medicaid dollars for groups such as Planned Parenthood, signed into law as part of President Donald Trump’s tax bill, before it expires on July 4. But Johnson, a close ally of the movement, is not considering the language, according to a GOP leadership aide, as Republicans attempt to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security through reconciliation, a budget process that skirts the Senate filibuster.
Trump has set a tight June 1 deadline to send the money to his desk, and leadership is wary of attaching anything that could divide the party and complicate its passage. The DHS funding is at the center of a weekslong partial government shutdown after negotiations with Democrats over immigration enforcement reforms fell apart this month.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has similarly urged Republicans to keep the bill focused on DHS as rank-and-file members float everything from healthcare policy to energy permitting language as add-ons.
For now, Republicans have a one-seat majority in the House and a three-seat margin in the Senate.
The decision is expected to disappoint anti-abortion organizations that have been discussing reconciliation with congressional Republicans since Johnson began suggesting another party-line bill more seriously in the fall. Since then, reconciliation has become an off-ramp to a GOP dispute over how to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement without Democratic votes.
Under the current plan, ICE and Customs and Border Protection will be funded by Republicans through reconciliation, with the remainder of DHS operating through the regular appropriations process.
Republicans have another party-line bill they are planning for the fall that could wrap together defense spending with a hodge-podge of unrelated priorities, including the abortion language. But it’s not a given that Republicans will pursue another reconciliation bill so close to election season, when lawmakers spend more time away from Washington and are reluctant to pass substantive legislation.
The decision to wait until the fall also means there will likely be at least a temporary expiration that allows taxpayer money to go to abortion providers. Noah Brandt, vice president of communications for the anti-abortion group Live Action, called the delay an unnecessary “loss” that could hand Planned Parenthood millions of dollars in federal funding.
Carol Tobias, the president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the Washington Examiner she wants to see the language continue uninterrupted.
“They need to keep it steady throughout,” she said.
Under federal law, tax dollars generally cannot be used for abortions, but Brandt and others argue that the funding Planned Parenthood gets for STD screenings and other reproductive services is fungible and helps subsidize abortion procedures. Planned Parenthood is one of several organizations that lost funding as part of Trump’s tax bill.
“If they get two months of funding, that could be many tens of millions of dollars,” Brandt said. “And so, the members of Congress who are pro-life and care about this should be working as hard as they can to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Tobias said she expects leadership will push for the renewal, and anti-abortion leaders consider both Johnson and Thune to be reliable partners. But the expiring prohibition was hard-fought for anti-abortion activists and came despite the reservations of centrist Republicans.
Anti-abortion groups were also disappointed that the provision expired after one year in the first place. The House originally passed the tax bill with language defunding abortion providers for 10 years, but it was whittled down to one year after an unfavorable ruling from the Senate parliamentarian.
This time, anti-abortion groups want to see leadership push for a longer extension with Democrats favored to retake the House in the November midterm elections.
“I don’t think it passes the smell test that 10 years doesn’t work, and then one year is the only solution that does,” Brandt said.
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said Johnson has “impeccable” credentials on anti-abortion issues and also credited Thune for pressing for tighter restrictions on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal dollars from being spent on abortions in most cases, as part of January negotiations over lapsed Obamacare subsidies.
But the provision’s likely expiration comes as conservatives express frustration at the Trump administration over its decision to allow the abortion pill mifepristone to be ordered by mail, and anti-abortion groups have been making the argument that Republicans risk demoralizing the GOP base further if they do not renew the defund language.
“The absence of that would speak volumes going into the fall election,” Perkins said.
Tobias said the outreach on Capitol Hill extends to centrist Republicans, with activists arguing that those lawmakers have already voted for it once and will face Democratic attacks regardless.
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“We’re convincing them, or trying to convince them, that they will be harming themselves more if they don’t vote for it,” she said.
Democrats accuse Republicans of pursuing a “backdoor abortion ban” using the defund language and emphasize the non-abortion services Planned Parenthood clinics provide to lower-income communities. The organization has so far offset the loss of federal funding through state grants and private donations.
