GOP bill leaves out anti-Planned Parenthood language

Healthcare Newsletter GOP bill leaves out anti-Planned Parenthood language Comments: by Joseph Choi and Nathaniel Weixel - 07/21/26 7:02 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Joseph Choi and Nathaniel Weixel - 07/21/26 7:02 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Presented by PhRMA{beacon}

Healthcare

Health Care

PRESENTED BY

The Big Story

GOP bill leaves out anti-Planned Parenthood language

Anti-abortion lawmakers and advocates saw one of their main policy goals left by the wayside once again after a prohibition on Medicaid funding going to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood was not included in House Republicans’ reconciliation bill framework.

A one-year ban on abortion providers being able to bill Medicaid for non-abortion services, which was included in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Trump signed last year, expired on July 5.

Anti-abortion activists have for months been calling for such a provision to be included in another bill that could go through the same special budget reconciliation process that bypasses the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, allowing Republicans to push partisan legislation through both chambers.

“That’s a terrible decision on the part of House leadership,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told The Hill. “I can’t wait to hear the explanation for that. But it’s absolutely terrible.”

Election year politics and a narrow congressional majority have made GOP leaders hesitant about including controversial anti-abortion measures into their recent party-line bills.

Lawmakers are entering a sprint to the mid-term elections with only a few dozen legislative days between now and November, meaning Republicans need to act quickly if they want any of their priorities to pass.

The dynamic threatens to exacerbate the tension between Republicans and anti-abortion activists, who were already expressing displeasure with the Trump administration for not doing enough to curtail mail-order abortion pills.

“The clock was our greatest threat to the broader opportunities,” House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said. “Introduce that, then you’re going to have a whole set of moving parts.”

Anti-abortion activists and lawmakers are now hopeful the Trump administration will do more.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his Wednesday confirmation hearing pledged to prioritize action to stop abortion medication from being available through the mail, in an encouraging sign for anti-abortion advocates.

Two days later, Hawley sent Blanche a letter asking him to investigate the nonprofit Plan C and manufacturer Danco Laboratories for shipping the abortion pill mifepristone in the mail.

“This coordinated effort between Plan C and the abortion drug manufacturers to violate state law at the expense of women’s health deserves the closest scrutiny,” Hawley wrote.

Welcome to The Hill’s Healthcare newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

The Hill Insider is coming

A new all-access digital subscription from The Hill — launching July 2026. Join the waitlist to be among the first inside

Join the waitlist

Essential Reads

How policy will be impacting the healthcare sector this week and beyond:

Trump admin freezes over $1B in Medicaid funds for Minnesota, California

The Trump administration is pausing more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota over alleged fraud concerns, officials announced Tuesday. Tuesday marked the second time Trump targeted the two states’ Democratic governors — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — for alleged Medicaid fraud in their states, and continues a trend of freezing funding to blue states to crack …

Full Story

Upcoming FDA peptide meeting puts industry on edge

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recently reformed committee on compounding pharmacies will meet this week to discuss adding more peptides to the list of substances that pharmacies can produce. But industry observers are conflicted over treating peptides — which Kennedy has said he’s a “big fan of” — like pharmaceuticals. The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC) …

Full Story

Novo Nordisk sues rival Eli Lilly over weight loss drug advertising

Drugmaker Novo Nordisk sued rival Eli Lilly on Tuesday, accusing the company of false advertising over the performance of its weight loss drugs. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in New Jersey, alleges Lilly intentionally selected outdated studies to show the use of Mounjaro and Zepbound lead to significantly more weight loss than Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy. The studies compared higher doses of Lilly’s medicine …

Full Story

On Our Radar

Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:

The Senate HELP Committee will debate and vote on a host of bipartisan health bills Wednesday, including legislation on insulin pricing

CONTENT FROM OUR SPONSORWhen America leads in medicine development, every American benefits.

Americans get new medicines 3 years faster than other high-income countries thanks to our biopharmaceutical leadership. If Washington copies other countries’ price control policies, we risk America’s access to cures. Learn more

In Other News

Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

Heavy smoke from wildfires blankets the US Midwest and Northeast, prompting evacuations

Thousands of visitors were told to evacuate a remote Minnesota wilderness area accessible only by boat as wildfires send dangerously heavy smoke over the U.S. Midwest and Northeast this week. More than 100 wildfires are burning in Canada, where a train crew in northern Ontario filmed themselves surrounded by flames before being safely …

Full Story

Around the Nation

Local and state headlines on healthcare:

A Deloitte-run system denied Medicaid benefits for Michigan’s disabled. Now Trump’s law piles on (KFF Health News)
Faced with piles of new paperwork, Arizonans are losing food stamps (New York Times)
Gov. Greg Abbott orders state health agencies to crack down on ‘birth tourism’ (Houston Public Radio)

What We’re Reading

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

Makers of rare disease drugs seek exemption from Trump’s price-cut pilots (Stat)
They used GLP-1s to lose weight. They ended up in treatment for anorexia (Wall Street Journal)
Fewer children got US-backed HIV treatment after aid cuts, study finds (Reuters)

What People Think

Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill: