WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the Restoring Essential Healthcare Act, a bicameral bill that repeals President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB) provision that bans Medicaid reimbursements for health services provided at Planned Parenthood clinics. The OBBB provision has already put nearly 200 Planned Parenthood clinics at risk of closure, endangering access to health care for more than two million patients across the country.
Identical legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Laura Friedman (CA-30), Chris Pappas (NH-1) and Nikema Williams (GA-5).
“I worked at Planned Parenthood. I saw how controlling your own health care allows you to make the best decisions about the course of your life – your education, your work and your family,” said Senator Smith.“Planned Parenthood offers so much more than abortion services. In many communities it is the only clinic to provide cancer screenings, birth control, and STI screening. This bill takes a critical step to restore Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, to ensure these clinics are equipped with the resources they need to provide essential health care, and to give patients back the right to choose their health care provider.”
“Planned Parenthood is a cornerstone of healthcare in communities all across our nation and it’s under direct attack. This bill will reverse a cruel, politically motivated ban on Medicaid payments that’s jeopardizing access to not just reproductive healthcare, but cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing, and more,” said Representative Laura Friedman. “We’re fighting to ensure people can continue getting the essential care they count on, no matter who they are or where they live.”
“Republicans have been pushing for years to defund Planned Parenthood, because they want to ban abortion nationwide—and they don’t care if they rip away access to cancer screenings, contraception, or other essential preventive care for millions of women in the process,” said Senator Murray. “Our bill is simple: it would reverse the provision Republicans enacted into law that cuts Planned Parenthood and other women’s health clinics off from federal Medicaid funding. In many communities, Planned Parenthood is the only place women can go to get basic preventive care, no matter their income. I’m proud to join my colleagues in this effort to save essential health care.”
“President Trump and his allies in Congress chose to devastate our nation’s already fractured health care system when they passed a backdoor abortion ban ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood. With this provision, they have put nearly 200 health centers at risk of closing and threatened over a million people’s access to cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, birth control, and other essential services, all in order to push an unpopular, anti-abortion agenda. We are thankful to Sens. Smith (D-MN) and Murray (D-WA) and Reps. Friedman (D-CA-30), Pappas (D-NH-1), and Williams (D-GA-5) for introducing the Restoring Essential Health Care Act, and for championing access to high-quality, affordable reproductive care. Everyone deserves health care, and we will continue to fight every day to make that possible,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
The ban on Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood could leave thousands of patients in every state with no place to seek essential reproductive care and other vital health services. Every year, Planned Parenthood provides healthcare to more than two million people, including STI testing, breast exams, birth control, HPV vaccines, mental health screening, and other critical services. Combined with the Administration’s cuts to Title X funding to Planned Parenthood, reproductive health care for millions of patients could be irreparably damaged.
As of Monday, July 28th, a federal judge has blocked the Trump Administration from enforcing its ban on Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood.
Since coming to the Senate, Senator Smith has championed the right of Americans to make their own reproductive health decisions. She is the only sitting United States Senator to have worked for Planned Parenthood, where she served as an Executive Vice President for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. She has introduced a host of legislation aimed at protecting access to medication abortions, expanding access to the nation’s largest family planning program (Title X), prohibiting states from hindering patients traveling across state lines to obtain abortion care, and the landmark Stop Comstock Act, which would repeal language in the Comstock Laws that could be used by an anti-abortion administration to ban the mailing of mifepristone and other drugs used in medication abortions, instruments and equipment used in abortions, and educational material related to sexual health.
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