House GOP fast-tracks budget bill that would cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood
By Jessica F. Simmons
May 13, 2025
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In a 30-24 party-line vote, cancer screenings, STI treatments, birth control, and other routine health care services are now one step closer to being cut off for millions of low-income Americans, after the US House passed a Republican-backed budget bill, Wednesday afternoon.
The bill is known as a reconciliation bill, a type of legislation Congress uses to fast-track major changes to federal spending and tax policy. Because of a special set of rules, reconciliation bills can pass the US Senate with a simple majority, bypassing the 60-vote threshold that typically blocks partisan legislation.
Republicans are using this process to advance a broad proposal that aims to extend President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which primarily benefited corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and make at least $1.5 trillion in cuts to key programs like Medicaid. Tucked inside the bill’s pages are major changes to how Medicaid operates—including a provision that would block Medicaid patients from receiving care at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of reproductive health services.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood would be catastrophic to communities, put countless lives at risk, and wreak havoc on our public health system,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement. “They’re set on depriving patients—particularly people who already have the hardest time getting health care—of access to affordable cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and many other essential reproductive health care services.”
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https://cardinalpine.com/2025/05/13/planned-parenthood-medicaid-defunded-reconciliation-bill/