Former Vice President Mike Pence’s nonprofit organization, Advancing American Freedom, is advocating for the reduction of federal funding allocated to Planned Parenthood.
In a recent letter addressed to Elon Musk, who is currently overseeing Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),
Tim Chapman, president of the organization, emphasized the need to defund what he describes as the largest abortion provider in the United States.
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, Planned Parenthood received approximately $75 billion in federal funding between 2019 and 2021.
This includes around $22 billion in Health and Human Services grants and $53 billion from various public health programs.
The letter highlighted that affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America alone accounted for $148 million in HHS grants and $1.5 billion in Medicare,
Medicaid, and CHIP payments, with additional funding of $108 million going to regional organizations.
Notably, taxpayer dollars constituted about 34% of Planned Parenthood’s overall funding, as cited from a 2022-2023 annual report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The letter expressed appreciation for the efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs but argued that defunding Planned Parenthood could represent a significant achievement for both Musk and President Trump.
The context of this appeal follows recent actions taken by Trump to restrict federal funding for abortion services, including the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy,
which bans federal funding for international NGOs that provide or promote abortions, as well as an executive order reinforcing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used for elective abortions.
These measures reversed previous policies implemented during the Biden administration that had expanded access to abortion services.
