A Senate GOP provision that would block Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood will remain in the massive tax and spending bill after the Senate parliamentarian on Monday advised the language does not violate the chamber’s Byrd Rule.
The ruling from Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough comes after Senate Republicans updated the provision late Friday night to change the timing of the “defunding” from 10 years to one year.
The bill’s language doesn’t specifically mention Planned Parenthood; it prohibits clinics and providers that offer abortions from accepting Medicaid for the other family planning and reproductive health care services they provide.
But Planned Parenthood is the only organization that it applies to.
The provision is estimated to cost taxpayers $52 million over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
“Republicans just got the green light to proceed with their destructive effort to defund Planned Parenthood health centers across the country—a crushing blow to the millions of women across America who rely on Planned Parenthood clinics for basic reproductive care,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement.
“Republicans’ last-minute changes to shorten the timeline of this provision hardly matter—once health clinics lose funding and are forced to close their doors, they are unlikely to reopen again,” she added.
The inclusion of the provision is a major victory for conservatives, who have long sought to cut off federal funding for the organization. But it could make it more difficult for on-the-fence Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to vote for the bill, as both have expressed support for abortion rights.
Planned Parenthood has said losing Medicaid funding would put at least 200 health centers across the country at risk of closure — 90 percent of them in states where abortion is legal. More than 1 million low-income people would lose access to a health care provider.
It follows a Supreme Court ruling last week that paves the way for red states to deny funding to Planned Parenthood.
Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions, but states want to cut government funding for other services Planned Parenthood provides as well. If the bill were to pass, the policy would be national.
“Republicans will stop at nothing in their crusade to take control of women’s bodies and deny them the right to make their own health care decisions,” Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a joint statement. “Republicans are trampling the law to force their extremist ideology onto the American people.”
