Democracy Dies in Darkness

The Health 202: Funding for Planned Parenthood went up – yes, up – during the Trump administration

Deputy newsletter editor
October 21, 2020 at 7:42 a.m. EDT

with Alexandra Ellerbeck

There is one antiabortion pledge President Trump hasn’t kept: his promise to defund Planned Parenthood.

Instead, federal funds to the women’s health-care and abortion provider grew during the first two and a half years of his administration. 

Government reimbursements and grants to Planned Parenthood hit record levels in the group’s fiscal years starting in 2017 and 2018, according to its most recent financial disclosure, even as the administration and Republicans in Congress and around the country endeavored — mostly unsuccessfully — to cut the provider out of government revenue streams wherever possible. Planned Parenthood won't release its next fiscal report until the end of the year.