By Carmel Richardson, First Things, January 20, 2026
Carmel Richardson is a contributing editor at the American Conservative.
When news broke last week that the Trump administration had quietly restored federal Planned Parenthood funding, which he had previously cut, pro-life conservatives were understandably upset. Yet, as Elizabeth Mitchell reported for the Daily Signal, the move was not a mere handout to the biggest abortionists in the country, despite its appearance to the contrary. In fact, it may have paved the way for more lasting cuts to Planned Parenthood subsidies down the road.
On April 1, 2025, Trump’s Health and Human Services froze just over $65 million worth of Title X grants to family planning clinics, citing concerns with “possible violations” of federal civil rights law. HHS said it would investigate clinics for “widespread practices across hiring, operations, and patient treatment that unavoidably employ race in a negative manner” as well as “taxpayer subsidization of open borders”—for example, conducting programs in a way that “overtly encourages illegal aliens to receive care.” …
