Cantwell & Colleagues Publish Report Revealing GOP’s Push to “Defund” Planned Parenthood Stripped Health Care Access & Raised Costs for Americans

Cantwell & Colleagues Publish Report Revealing GOP's Push to "Defund" Planned Parenthood Stripped Health Care Access & Raised Costs for Americans

NEW DATA: In the 6 months since Trump and Republicans "defunded" Planned Parenthood, breast exam visits fell by 25% compared to the same period in a previous year, delaying detection & lifesaving preventive care

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined her Senate Democratic colleagues in publishing a new report revealing the harm that President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have caused to Americans in the six months since their dangerous provision to "defund" Planned Parenthood, buried in their so-called "One Big, Beautiful Bill," went into effect.

The report reveals that, in addition to acting as a backdoor abortion ban, the "defund" provision has ripped away Americans' access to essential services - including primary care, birth control, cancer screenings, and wellness exams - and raised health care costs.

The report found that the "Defund" Planned Parenthood provision has:

• Interrupted care, raised health care costs, and worsened provider shortages, creating immediate and significant barriers for patients in need of health care;
• Hit low-income patients and patients in rural and medically underserved areas the hardest;
• Functioned as a backdoor abortion ban - even in states where abortion is legal; and
• Shifted costs onto patients, providers, and states, forcing them to absorb the financial and operational burden of lost federal funding without sustainable alternatives.

The report also found that Republican attempts to permanently defund Planned Parenthood will leave patients with nowhere else to turn.

New data in the report shows the number of people accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers dropped sharply in November and December of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024:

• The number of breast exam visits fell by 25% in December, increasing the risk of delayed breast cancer detection and avoidable, more serious illness;
• The number of visits for birth control pills fell by 20% in November; and
• Visits for IUDs and other long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) dropped by 41% in November and 36% in December - the steepest decline across all services measured.

The report was led by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). In addition to Sen. Cantwell, it was joined by 22 other Senators

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law with a one-year provision to bar federal Medicaid funding from reimbursing non-profit family planning and reproductive health providers that provide abortions, outside of long-standing narrow exceptions. Established federal law already bans the use of federal funds to provide abortions, but the "defund" provision blocked federal Medicaid reimbursement for all non-abortion services furnished by the health care providers singled out by the law. In addition to Planned Parenthood, two independent organizations - Maine Family Planning and Health Imperatives - have been barred from receiving Medicaid funds.

Prior to the "defund" provision, nearly half of all visits to Planned Parenthood health centers were by patients who relied on Medicaid to cover the cost of care. Now, tens of thousands of Americans have been forced to forgo essential health care, including birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more at Planned Parenthood health centers. Twenty-three Planned Parenthood health centers have closed since the provision went into effect. The provision is set to expire on July 4, 2026.

Sen. Cantwell spoke against the bill and voted against it on the Senate floor. The Senate passed the bill on a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance repeatedly casting tie-breaking votes, on final passage of the bill and procedural votes.

Sen. Cantwell is a stalwart defender of women's reproductive health and has been sounding the alarm since leaked documents in 2022 indicated the U.S. Supreme Court's intent to overturn the decades-long precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

On the first anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, Sen. Cantwell released a snapshot report that detailed the impact of the ruling on abortion providers and patients in the State of Washington. Among other far-reaching impacts, the report found that Idaho's abortion ban led to a 56% surge in abortion patients from Idaho seeking care at Eastern Washington abortion clinics by June 2023. At the 18-month anniversary, she released another snapshot report showing that Washington health care providers were seeing a 46% spike in the number of out-of-state abortion patients they were treating.

On the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs ruling, Sen. Cantwell prepared another report about its continued effect, showing that the decisions harm to Washington's health care system continued to widen - going well beyond abortion and into other health care services. Soon after, she led 15 of her colleagues in releasing a national report that showed women are being denied emergency care and lifesaving treatments in a post-Roe America.

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