The White House Just Dropped A Clue About Birth Control Funding
4.2.26
Click to skip ahead: White House Says Title X Dollars Will Go to ‘Pro-Life’ Groups; In the States: Montana, Wyoming, Hawaii, Illinois, Nebraska; Abortion Patient Charged With Murder Loses Wrongful Arrest Suit ; What the SCOTUS Conversion Therapy Ruling Means for Abortion; Ballot Box: Missouri, Wisconsin, Florida
White House Says Title X Dollars Will Go to ‘Pro-Life’ Groups
This is worrying: the Trump administration says that the next cycle of federal family planning dollars will go to organizations that “prioritize life and promote the pro-family agenda.”
The HHS spokesperson who made the comment didn’t elaborate on what exactly that means, but Abortion, Every Day has long warned that the Project 2025 aficionados in the White House are eager to take Title X funding for birth control access and reroute it to crisis pregnancy centers.
Let’s back up: this started because the Trump administration announced that they’d finish out a five-year funding cycle that provides Title X dollars to Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics. But don’t get it twisted—this wasn’t some bold, pro-choice policy move. That funding was locked in by the Biden administration in 2022, and the White House is legally obligated to continue it.
Anti-abortion groups know that, but they decided to use the moment to feign fury anyway. (It’s similar to what antis did when the FDA approved a generic form of mifepristone: they knew the agency didn’t have a choice, but it was an opportunity to exert public pressure.)
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s Marjorie Dannenfelser characterized the routine continuation of funding “an inexplicable slap in the face,” and Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life, called it “absolutely maddening.”
In response to the backlash, a HHS spokesperson promised that this would be the “fifth and final year” of the funding. Most tellingly, they said:
“HHS will soon be releasing a new Title X funding opportunity for the next five-year funding cycle that prioritizes life and promotes the pro-family agenda.”
Remember, Title X is the nation’s family planning program. It provides affordable care like contraception, STI testing, and cancer screenings to low-income and uninsured patients.
So what would it look like to have those dollars go to ‘pro-life’ organizations?
Well, in Project 2025, conservatives are clear: they want to “reframe” Title X to focus on “fertility awareness and holistic family planning,” and to “provide educational information on healthy marriage and relationships.” The extremist roadmap also calls for the end of “religious discrimination in grant selections” for Title X.
Oh-so-coincidentally, Republican lawmakers across the country right now are pushing legislation that would prohibit “discriminating” against crisis pregnancy centers because they don’t provide contraception.
There’s no overstating the damage it would do if Title X dollars were funneled to anti-contraception religious groups. The reproductive healthcare landscape is already bleak, and Trump’s “big beautiful bill” has shut down nearly two dozen Planned Parenthood clinics.
While we wait to find out what the White House has in mind for those future family planning dollars, clinics are waiting right now for this current cycle of funding to hit. A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood tells us they’re hopeful the federal dollars will be distributed soon, but that:
“[T]he Trump administration appears ready to cut Planned Parenthood affiliates out of the program and once again take away birth control and other essential health care from millions.”
Read more about attacks on contraception below:
In the States: Montana, Wyoming, Hawaii, Illinois, Nebraska
Let’s start with some good news: the Montana Supreme Court has blocked several needless abortion restrictions that would have shuttered clinics across the state. As the Daily Montanan reports, the TRAP laws require onerous licensing procedures for providers and would force clinics to adhere to standards usually reserved for hospitals.
It’s a classic GOP move: claim you’re not banning abortion while making it impossible for clinics to operate.
But thanks to a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling and a 2024 pro-choice ballot measure win, Montana’s constitution protects abortion rights. And justices weren’t buying Republicans’ claim that these laws were there to “protect” women. Especially because lawmakers didn’t try to enact similar restrictions on clinics that provide identical care for miscarriage patients.
Meanwhile, Wyoming Republicans are also hard at work trying to restrict abortion in spite of constitutional protections. As you know, Gov. Mark Gordon signed a six-week abortion ban, ignoring a recent state Supreme Court ruling that protects abortion.
Wellspring Health Access, Wyoming’s only abortion clinic, has already been forced to turn patients away because of that six-week ban. That, of course, is the point. Republicans know their law is unconstitutional, but they’d rather waste taxpayer dollars in a protracted court battle than allow women to access healthcare.
This week, the abortion rights advocates who fought to repeal two other Wyoming bans brought another suit against this latest law. Here’s hoping they get it blocked soon so people can get the care they need.
Over in Hawaii, the Senate Health and Homelessness Committee advanced a resolution to codify the right to emergency abortions. It’s basically a move to pass a state-level version of EMTALA—which requires hospitals to provide life-saving and stabilizing care, including abortions. It’s ridiculous that these kinds of protections need to be enshrined at all—you’d think saving someone’s life would be obvious! But we’re grateful for the advocates out there ensuring women can’t be turned away at emergency rooms.
Earlier this year, we told you about the Prairie State Access Fund—a new Illinois abortion group fund launched by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Michael Reese Health Trust. This week, the organization announced their first four awardees: Chicago Abortion Fund, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, Repro TLC, and the Red Tent Fund.
Illinois has always been a critical access point for abortion care, but the state’s role has only grown more important since the end of Roe. (Right now, Illinois sees the highest number of out-of-state patients in the country.) We’re thrilled to see these vital groups get some funding love.
In other positive news: don’t let anyone tell you that young people don’t care about abortion rights. Nebraska high school and college students lobbied state lawmakers this week—urging them to oppose several pieces of anti-abortion legislation. From Omaha Central High School student Latavia Carodiave:
“Being teenagers, we do care about our community. We want lawmakers to know our voices matter and shouldn’t be ignored.”
Love it.
Quick hits:
Forward digs into the pro-choice Jewish group that successfully blocked Indiana’s abortion ban on religious freedom grounds;
A Michigan Republican falsely claimed that a funding program for prenatal care was going to abortions;
And Students for Life launched their “Abortion is Human Sacrifice” tour in Iowa, where president Kristan Hawkins drew an audience of just 40 students. 😏
Abortion Patient Charged With Murder Loses Wrongful Arrest Suit
We have an infuriating update from Texas: Lizelle Gonzalez has lost her wrongful arrest lawsuit.
For those who need a refresher: Lizelle Gonzalez (then Herrera) was charged with murder in 2022 for self-managing an abortion. Like many women arrested for their pregnancy outcomes, Lizelle was turned in by the healthcare providers she went to for help. What’s especially horrific is that Lizelle was subjected to a c-section rather than a standard, less invasive abortion—even though her pregnancy didn’t have a fetal heartbeat.
In 2024, Gonzalez sued prosecutors and the Starr County sheriff for $1 million in damages. But this week, a Trump-appointed federal judge dismissed her suit—claiming the officials who criminalized her are protected by “qualified immunity.”
Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez said he feels “tremendously vindicated,” and suggested the suit was unnecessary because, “there was an apology made by me personally to her.” As if saying sorry is sufficient after jailing, traumatizing, and smearing someone as a murderer.
Ramirez also suggested he is the victim in all of this: “I’ve received hate mail.” The truth? The only actual consequences the DA faced were a small fine and a one-year suspension.
Back in August, Gonzalez’s ACLU attorneys warned that “without real accountability,” law enforcement will continue to criminalize women and “[abuse] their power to unlawfully target people because of their personal beliefs.”
That’s exactly right. At a time of escalating, wrongful criminalization, law enforcement should be deterred from targeting and terrorizing pregnant people. We’re so sorry that Lizelle Gonzalez didn’t get the justice she deserves.
If you or someone you know needs help, call If/When/How’s Repro Legal Hotline (844-868-2812) or use the intake form at ACLU’s Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative.
To learn more about another suit brought by a wrongfully-arrested woman, read our coverage of Brittany Watts below:
What the SCOTUS Conversion Therapy Ruling Means for Abortion
The Supreme Court sided 8-1 this week with a Christian therapist in Colorado who argues the state’s ban on conversion therapy violates her First Amendment rights. With the exception of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Court agreed—sending the case back to a lower court.
As the Trevor Project points out, this ruling is about how conversion therapy is regulated—not whether it’s harmful. We know it is:
“[E]very major U.S. medical and mental health authority still agrees conversion therapy is unethical, harmful, and associated with increased rates of suicidality, anxiety, and depression.”
Still, Justice Neil Gorsuch insisted evangelical counselor Kaley Chiles—who claims to offer “non-coercive” talk therapy—is being “silenced.”
“The kids and families who want help—this kind of help that she offers—are being left without any support,” he wrote.
This, of course, obscures the obvious reality that many young people will be forced into this “help” by parents or guardians. And more importantly, that there is nothing wrong with being gay or trans. So-called therapy that claims otherwise is dangerous.
As Justice Jackson argued in her dissent, “Chiles is not speaking in the ether; she is providing therapy to minors as a licensed healthcare professional.”
This decision comes at a moment of escalating attacks on young people’s bodily autonomy across the board—whether it’s gender-affirming care, contraception, or abortion. And as Jessica Goldberg, associate director of youth access at If/When/How, tells us:
“All fights to defend people’s bodily autonomy are linked…attacks on young people are often just the first step in decimating [all] our rights.”
It’s no coincidence that this suit was brought by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)—the conservative legal powerhouse that overturned Roe. ADF has filed ‘free speech’ suits across the country on behalf of crisis pregnancy centers seeking to sidestep regulation, activists hoping to repeal buffer zones, and extremist healthcare providers, pharmacists, and employers desperate to deny women birth control.
In nearly all of those cases, ADF claims their clients are being discriminated against over their religious beliefs. You can’t separate attacks on trans people from attacks on abortion rights—especially when the target is young people, who are always the canaries in the coal mine.
Ballot Box: Missouri, Wisconsin, Florida
The Missouri anti-abortion groups backing a ballot measure ban have formed a new PAC: “Her Health, Her Future.”
The name is comically removed from reality: abortion bans kill women and girls. But conservatives continue to co-opt feminist language for one simple reason: feminism is popular and abortion bans are not.
In every state where abortion has been on the ballot, Republicans have tried to trick voters into supporting restrictions by claiming to be “pro-choice” or adopting names nearly identical to the real pro-choice measures. In Missouri’s case, the name is 100% identical: the abortion ban on the ballot this year is called Amendment 3—the same name as the pro-choice measure adopted by voters in 2024.
Luke Schrandt, one of the anti-abortion leaders behind the effort, told the Missouri Independent that he believes they’ll raise substantially more money this time around:
“I think if some of the larger pro-life donors would have known how close it would have been, we would have gotten some of the bigger checks, but we didn’t get any of the bigger checks.”
We’ll keep you updated on this one.
Wisconsin voters will choose a new state Supreme Court justice next week, in a race that’s become a referendum on abortion rights—again! This is the third such election since the end of Roe.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a full breakdown of where the candidates stand on abortion, but the short version is this: Chris Taylor is pro-choice, and Maria Lazar is not—though she’s desperate to hide her anti-abortion bonafides.
This is a race with national implications, so if you have friends in Wisconsin, now is the time to give them a call!
Some pleasant news out of Florida: when Donald Trump goes to Mar-a-Lago (aka, every weekend), his state House representative will now be a Democrat.
Democrat Emily Gregory—a first-time candidate—flipped the deep-red Palm Beach County House District 87. Gregory defeated her GOP opponent in a special election, winning 51-49%. Fun fact: this is a district that Trump won by more than 10 points back in 2024.
It gets better: Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed Florida’s six-week ban, once held that very seat while he served in the House! And now it belongs to a pro-choice woman with a background in public health.
Since Florida’s six-week ban took effect in 2024, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly tried to pass fetal personhood legislation. DeSantis stacked the state Medical Board with anti-abortion extremists and diverted funding for low-income families to campaign against the pro-choice ballot measure in 2024. This is what we’re up against.
But these special election victories are a good sign. Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee’s Heather William says, “The data shows us that Democratic victories in Florida don’t have to stop here—we’ve got a big year ahead,” with opportunities to “break GOP supermajorities in both chambers.”
So they plan to put contraception out of the reach of poor women, then leave them on own and refuse to fund prenatal and childbirth care, nutrition and healthcare and public education for their kids, then shame them for having more kids than they could afford. How very Christian of them.
Can we start a crowdfunding campaign for money directed to clinics that provide full care including birth control, prenatal care, and abortions depending on needs and desires of the patients with no BS judgements and possibly travel costs and safe housing while needed.