Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is pressing the Trump administration to reverse its decision to continue federal family planning funding that benefits Planned Parenthood, warning that the move undermines prior anti-abortion commitments.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Hawley said he was “alarmed” by the department’s decision to extend Title X grants originally approved under former President Joe Biden.
“I write to express my alarm at the recent decision to release another year of Title X grant funding to abortion providers,” Hawley wrote. “These grants, originally approved by the Biden Administration, will now directly subsidize organizations like Planned Parenthood that perform hundreds of thousands of abortions each year. I urge you to reverse course.”
The Title X program provides federal funding for family planning and preventive reproductive health services, particularly for low-income patients.
While the funds are legally barred from directly paying for abortions, critics such as Hawley argue the money allows clinics that offer abortion services to redirect other resources toward those procedures.
Hawley also pointed to commitments Kennedy made during his confirmation hearing, noting that the secretary had pledged to reinstate the “Protect Life Rule” from the first Trump administration, which restricted Title X funding for organizations that perform abortions.
“To my knowledge, no rulemaking process appears to have yet begun,” Hawley wrote. “And taxpayer money continues to flow to abortion providers.”
The Missouri Republican requested detailed answers from HHS by April 30, including what steps the agency has taken toward reintroducing the rule, what legal barriers it believes prevent such action, and how it plans to ensure that federal funds do not indirectly subsidize abortion services.
The dispute comes as the Trump administration navigates legal and political constraints surrounding the Title X program.
When Biden took office in 2021, his administration awarded a five-year round of Title X grants to Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations, part of a broader rollback of Trump-era restrictions.
After returning to office in 2025, President Donald Trump initially moved to terminate dozens of those grants.
Abortion-rights groups challenged the cancellations in court, and the administration ultimately released the 2025 funds following legal pressure.
Rather than risk another court fight, the White House announced this week it would also distribute the 2026 funds allocated under the Biden-era grants, citing “significant legal challenges” to halting the funding outright.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RESTORES FAMILY PLANNING FUNDS TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Hawley’s letter signals growing frustration among anti-abortion lawmakers and the socially conservative wing of the GOP, who argue the administration should pursue more aggressive regulatory changes to block funding to abortion providers.
Despite the criticism, White House spokesman Kush Desai said “the Administration remains committed to realigning the Title X program with the President’s pro-life and pro-family agenda going forward,” in a Tuesday statement to the Washington Examiner.
