Anti-Abortion Lawmakers are Back From Recess, Ready To Continue Attacking Our Rights 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Goodbye brat summer, hello appropriations fall. Congress has until the end of the month to agree on a short term funding deal and avert a government shutdown — and the anti-abortion rights House majority is spending its first days back pushing a divisive bill with a poison pill voting restriction, which is expected to be a non-starter in the Senate. 

While these House leaders threw in the towel in July and abandoned plans to vote on their remaining annual funding bills, we still have the receipts. The individual bills may be on hold as the fight over a temporary spending deal unfolds in the coming weeks — but the House majority is not done working to take away access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

Here are the deeply unpopular attacks on reproductive freedom the House majority has packed into their FY25 appropriations bills this year: 

• The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill includes measures designed to:
  • “defund” Planned Parenthood, blocking people who rely on public health programs from accessing critical preventive services at Planned Parenthood health centers;
  • eliminate funding for the Title X family planning program;
  • eliminate funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, while funding abstinence-only-until-marriage programs;
  • restrict access to gender-affirming care;
  • prohibit Medicaid from covering abortion through the discriminatory Hyde Amendment, and continue the harmful Weldon Amendment;
  • block Biden administration executive orders intended to increase access to abortion care post-Dobbs decision;
  • interfere with postgraduate training in abortion care, an essential component of medical education necessary to care for pregnant people; and
  • block a proposed rule that would prevent funding for direct assistance to low-income families with children from being funneled to anti-abortion centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers. 
• The State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs bill includes measures designed to:
  • cap funding for international family planning and reproductive health programs at $461 million, a nearly 25% cut;
  • ban funding for UNFPA, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency; 
  • permanently and legislatively impose the expanded version of the global gag rule;
  • restrict information about and access to gender-affirming care; and
  • maintain the Helms Amendment in addition to restrictions on abortion coverage for Peace Corps volunteers.
• The Defense bill includes measures designed to:
  • reverse Department of Defense (DOD) policy safeguarding access to reproductive health care, including abortion, for service members and their families; and
  • block access to gender-affirming care for service members and their families.
    • Anti-abortion rights lawmakers included similar measures in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — an annual must-pass bill.
• The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill includes measures designed to:
  • overturn a rule issued by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) that allows the VA to provide veterans and their eligible dependents abortion care in certain circumstances;
  • ban coverage and provision of abortion care through the VA in all but narrow exceptions; and
  • block access to gender-affirming care for veterans and their families.
• The Homeland Security bill includes measures designed to:
  • ban coverage and provision of abortion care for individuals under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody except in very narrow exceptions, dangerously jeopardizing the health of people in detention; and 
  • Block access to gender-affirming care for people in ICE custody. 
• The Financial Services and General Government bill includes measures designed to:
  • overturn a District of Columbia law protecting employees from being fired for their personal reproductive health care decisions; 
  • ban coverage of abortion for federal employees and their dependents who access health care through the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), with very limited exceptions; and 
  • ban the District of Columbia from using local funds to cover abortion services, except under very limited circumstances, under its version of the Medicaid program. 
• The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies bill includes measures designed to:
  • ban abortion coverage for people detained in federal prisons with very narrow exceptions; 
  • block DOJ from suing any state or local government over their abortion laws; and 
  • block a rule implementing a federal law protecting pregnant people from workplace discrimination by requiring reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related medical conditions, including abortion. 

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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational, advocacy, and limited electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education.