President Trump is on a warpath. No one is going to stop him.
Now Trump dropped the hammer on a Democrat pet project in the most stunning way imaginable.
The Trump administration has set its sights on pausing $27.5 million in Title X family-planning grants, targeting organizations like Planned Parenthood.
The move, reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday, stems from a push to investigate whether these taxpayer dollars have been funneled into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
An agency spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provided the details, according to the report.
The WSJ noted that Planned Parenthood affiliates are among the groups facing the freeze. “Altogether, the groups were set to get a total of about $120 million this year,” the report stated, with around $20 million earmarked for Planned Parenthood facilities across roughly a dozen states.
HHS, under Trump’s leadership, has consistently reflected a pro-life stance. Just last week, on March 21, the agency marked World Down Syndrome Day with a post on X: “HHS celebrate[s] the incredible children and adults with Down syndrome and the families who love and support them.”
The statement continued, “Every life is precious, full of promise, and worthy of protection. HHS is committed to supporting these families and ensuring easy access to the care and resources they deserve.”
Following the investigation, HHS could either cancel the grants entirely or redirect the funds elsewhere, the WSJ observed. This aligns with broader efforts from President Donald Trump, who has signed multiple executive orders to roll back DEI policies across federal agencies.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, welcomed the administration’s scrutiny of Planned Parenthood’s funding. “I hope it will lead the Administration to permanently redirect the funding to real quality health care options, especially for women,” he said in a statement to CatholicVote.
He added, “Planned Parenthood, which is ‘Child Abuse, Incorporated,’ dismembers or chemically poisons 1,000 babies every day, killing approximately 10 million innocent children since 1970. Yet it is subsidized by nearly $600 million in federal taxpayer dollars each year from multiple programs, including Title X.”
Smith didn’t mince words about the broader context: “For too long, politicians and much of the media have ignored, trivialized, and even defended the gross human rights abuses Planned Parenthood commits. Title X was established to provide family planning, not subsidize those who perpetrate cruel and inhumane acts against an unborn baby—there is nothing benign or compassionate about killing a defenseless child.”
Planned Parenthood’s CEO, Alexis McGill-Johnson, pushed back, telling the WSJ, “[t]he Trump-Vance-Musk administration wants to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers by any means necessary, and they’ll end people’s access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more to do it.”
Meanwhile, in the waning days of the Biden administration, the organization pressed the Democrat-led Senate to confirm judges who could counter Trump’s pro-life agenda.
The abortion giant also criticized Trump’s recent executive order targeting the Department of Education.
“President Trump and Elon Musk are dismantling our government and our democracy brick by brick, executive order by executive order — with no regard for the consequences,” Planned Parenthood stated. Dr. Sara Flowers, the group’s vice president of education and training, called the shift of education policy back to states and parents “a power grab that will harm students and their futures,” adding, “Education, including s*x education, prepares young people for today’s world and sets them up for success.”
Pro-life voices weighed in too. Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director turned advocate, told CatholicVote, “The federal government won’t have to look too hard to find evidence of DEI practices at Planned Parenthood. It’s practically one of their creeds, so stripping that money away should be a small, easy win on behalf of taxpayers.”
She noted, “The money the government would be sending to Planned Parenthood supposedly would have been going to infertility counseling, STD testing, pregnancy tests, and contraception disbursement, all of which have significantly decreased since 2020. In fact, for the last several years, the number of patients at Planned Parenthood have decreased while the taxpayer funding has increased. This makes zero sense.”
