Manny Cueva from Houston, Texas, raises anti-abortion signs during the 52nd annual March for Life on the National Mall in Washington on Jan. 24, 2025. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO
‘DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS’— Anti-abortion activists and their allies in government are hoping this is the year they finally take down Planned Parenthood by going after the federal funding that makes up more than a third of the organization’s budget — with efforts moving simultaneously through Congress, the courts and the executive branch.
“It’s spaghetti-against-the-wall time for those of us who are pro-life,” Tom McClusky, the director of government affairs for the group Catholic Vote, told Nightly. “If it's death by a thousand cuts as opposed to one big blow, I'm okay with that.”
The Supreme Court announced this week that it will hear arguments in April on South Carolina’s ability to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood — a landmark case that could prompt dozens of GOP-controlled states to take a significant bite out of the organization’s finances.
On the heels of the news, nearly 100 Republican members of Congress wrote to the high court urging the justices to side with the Palmetto State, arguing that the right to exclude the network of clinics is part of “the flexibility Congress gave states to innovate in their Medicaid programs” and that recognizing Planned Parenthood’s right to sue would “usurp” their legislative power.
Congress may also take their own whack at the organization in the budget they’re cobbling together ahead of a March funding cliff.
But reports emerged last week that House Republicans were getting cold feet about including provisions defunding Planned Parenthood in their reconciliation bill — mainly because, as Nightly reported in December, it would cost taxpayers far more than it saved. That GOP hesitation is now spurring anti-abortion groups to mobilize. And after days of public petitions and social media barrages as well as private meetings with staffers on key committees and in House leadership, some activists are confident they’ve changed lawmakers’ minds.
“It lit a fire under some of the pro-life groups,” said McClusky, adding that slashing Planned Parenthood’s budget in a reconciliation bill is “now back on the table” and “certainly closer than it was a week ago.”
In one sign of that shift in direction, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) a longtime abortion opponent who sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS last week that defunding Planned Parenthood “doesn’t save money,” adding: “I just don’t see how that fits into the current reconciliation discussion.”
Today, however, he struck a different note. “We shouldn't be paying for institutions whose primary purpose is to do abortions,” he told Nightly. “[Defunding the group has] been included in reconciliation language twice before and we should include it again.”
After years of seeing Republicans on Capitol Hill try and fail to defund the group, McClusky said his group and others won’t let up the pressure.
“Just because members are now aware of it does not mean it's 100 percent guaranteed,” he said. “Even the good guys in Congress are sometimes reluctant to actually do something.”
Though the majority of abortions are provided by independent clinics that are not part of the Planned Parenthood network, conservatives have long targeted the group’s funding — in part because they are one of the leading players fighting for abortion access in court and in political campaigns.
“The GOP has been sitting by while their adversary, Planned Parenthood, has been funded generously,” lamented Kristi Hamrick with Students for Life of America, another group that has been meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members to demand they make defunding the group a priority or risk a primary challenge in 2026. Hamrick said some members have been “tepid” and “passive,” with some arguing that the strict rules around reconciliation might flout the effort.
The anti-abortion groups’ response: try anyway.
“This is not the time to say I am pro-life theoretically,” she said. “You have to be pro-life practically and actively.”
Yet if Congress’ GOP majority once again falls short, judges could get the job done for them.
The South Carolina case is far from the only one working its way through federal courts that poses an existential threat to Planned Parenthood.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals could rule any day now on a Texas lawsuit seeking a whopping $1.8 billion in damages over allegations that the group defrauded the state’s Medicaid program — claims the organization says are categorically false. And multiple cases from Ohio and other states seek to reimpose restrictions on the Title X family planning program from Trump’s first administration that caused Planned Parenthood to lose tens of millions in funding. Anti-abortion groups are also continuing to lobby Trump to revive that Title X rule administratively and “debar” Planned Parenthood from receiving any government funds.
Planned Parenthood argues that should any of these efforts succeed, it would result in harm to its millions of patients, particularly for those on Medicaid who often struggle to find a doctor willing to take their insurance because of the program’s low reimbursement rates.
“Attacks are coming from all directions,” said Hannah Swanson, a senior staff attorney for Planned Parenthood. “The risk is that people will lose the ability to get access to the care that they need — from birth control to STI testing.”
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What'd I Miss?
— Hegseth reins in demands on Ukraine amid allies’ outcries: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today pulled back some of the peace deal concessions he demanded of Ukraine a day earlier, including no NATO membership for the embattled country or a return to its pre-war borders. He made no mention of any conditions today, hours after President Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin spoke by phone about a potential peace deal. Hegseth’s initial comments and the phone call infuriated European allies, who took it as a sign the United States was sidelining Ukraine.
— Trump sets out process for imposing global reciprocal tariffs: President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum today moving the United States one step closer to a “reciprocal” tariff system that could dramatically raise duties on certain imports from around the world. The new action lays out a process for Trump to impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, which would be based on tariff and non-tariff barriers each country imposes. The White House official said top Cabinet officials would study the matter further before deciding on specific rates for other countries.
— Manhattan prosecutor told to drop Eric Adams case resigns: The acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned today, just days after she was instructed to drop a five-count bribery case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Danielle Sassoon’s exit, first reported by The New York Times, injects further political intrigue into the mayor’s conditional clemency. Sassoon, who Trump appointed to lead the Manhattan federal prosecutors office until his permanent pick for U.S. attorney is confirmed by the Senate, had been forcefully pursuing the case.
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
JUST THE BEGINNING — Elon Musk said the United States must “delete entire agencies” in order to achieve the Trump administration’s goals of drastically downsizing and restructuring the federal workforce.
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said via a video call to the World Governments Summit in Dubai today. “It’s kind of like a weed, if we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
Musk’s appearance at the summit comes on the heels of his controversial attempt to overhaul federal government programs through his Department of Government Efficiency. His work, which is endorsed by President Donald Trump, has included threatening mass layoffs, calling for the closure of agencies and seeking access to sensitive government databases.
The 12-10 vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee paves the way for Patel to be confirmed by the full Senate in the coming weeks, when he’ll take the helm of the federal law enforcement agency amid a massive leadership shakeup. The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, has accused Patel of helping from the outside to oust some of the Justice Department's top officials in the early days of the Trump administration.
LUTNICK ADVANCES — Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Commerce — and implement the president's sweeping trade and tariff agenda — is set for a full Senate confirmation vote in the coming days.
The Senate voted to advance Howard Lutnick's nomination this afternoon, 52-45. It comes after the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voted last week, 16-12, to advance Lutnick to the floor, with just Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voting with all Republicans in support.
ROLLINS CONFIRMED — The Senate voted 72-28 today to confirm Brooke Rollins’ nomination to serve as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. All Republicans agreed to pass Rollins, but more Democrats voted against her than expected — including Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who initially helped advance her out of the Senate Agriculture Committee to the full Senate floor.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who voted in favor of Rollins, said “a lot of Democrats” are voting against most of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees in response to his efforts to overhaul the federal workforce.
AROUND THE WORLD
President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sept. 27, 2024 in New York. | Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
PRIMARILY BILATERAL — Ukraine will participate in negotiations with Russia and the United States “one way or another,” but peace talks will remain primarily bilateral, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said today.
“We, of course, understand that our main counterpart in this process is Washington,” Peskov said, according to Russian state media. “One way or another, of course, Ukraine will participate in the negotiations. Of course, there will be a bilateral Russian-American track of this dialogue, and a track that, of course, will be connected with Ukraine's involvement.”
Peskov’s remarks came after a whirlwind 24 hours in which U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and declared that negotiations between the U.S. and Russia to end the war in Ukraine would commence imminently, notably sidelining Ukrainian participation in his public messaging. At the same time, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called a return to Ukraine’s old borders an “illusory goal.”
RED ALERT — German political leaders have reacted with alarm to President Donald Trump’s bombshell announcement that his administration will conduct peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the head of European leaders.
“To be clear, peace must last over the long term. It must secure Ukraine’s sovereignty,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today. “That is why we will never support a dictated peace. Nor will we accept any solution that leads to a decoupling of European and American security. Only one person would benefit from that. President Putin.”
Scholz, whose Social Democratic Party (SPD) is in third place according to polls ahead of a Feb. 23 national election, called for more spending on Germany’s defenses and military aid for Ukraine, and urged conservatives to relax the country’s strict spending rules — a theme he has touched on repeatedly during the election campaign.
Tensions between the two countries have reached fever pitch in recent days after Nasser al-Khelaïfi, president of the majority Qatari-owned French football club Paris Saint-Germain, was put under formal investigation by financial prosecutors last week on charges of “complicity in vote buying and undermining the freedom to vote.”
DISNEY DREAD— Disney parks, created to be the most magical places in the world, are fast becoming a nightmare for parents who are forced to spend more than the average mortgage payment to create lasting memories. For a two-parent family with two kids, a four-day visit to Walt Disney World including lodging at the Disney-owned hotel cost $4,266 in 2024. It’s a far cry from decades ago, when board members resisted increasing the price of parking from $1 because they felt it was contrary to Walt Disney’s vision. Today, parking costs $30 a day or more at the parks. Some Disney officials and tourism experts now worry the company risks alienating future customers and pricing out young families as prices surge. For The Wall Street Journal, Robbie Whelan explains how the Happiest Place on Earth is out of reach for middle-class Americans.
Parting Image
On this date in 2007: Mitt Romney announces his candidacy for president alongside his wife and other family members at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Romney was defeated in the 2008 Republican primary by John McCain and went on to become the GOP’s nominee for president in 2012. | AP
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