Pro-lifers have a unique opportunity to defund Planned Parenthood with the new Trump administration

By: Susan Ciancio, originally published January 6, 2025, LifeSiteNews.com

Pro-lifers must hold President Donald Trump and other politicians to their promises of defunding Planned Parenthood, which received nearly $700 million in taxpayer money last fiscal year – an egregious waste of funds.

President Donald Trump and pro-life legislators have promised to defund Planned Parenthood, and as taxpayers, it is our duty to hold them to this promise. Planned Parenthood is the country’s number one abortion business. But they also target children with “sex ed” in schools, push hormones to gender-confused teens, and have recently created a program to target youth in prisons. And they do it all with money from donors, grants, and taxpayers.

For the fiscal year 2022-2023 (the last year they provided information), Planned Parenthood received nearly $700 million in taxpayer money. This is an egregious waste of funds – funds that should be building up communities, strengthening infrastructure, and taking care of the needy. There are over 2,700 pro-life pregnancy centers that don’t commit abortions, while there are just under 600 PP facilities throughout the U.S. Imagine the good that 700 million could do if it went to helping families, single moms, and children instead of funding programs that kill.

Now that Donald Trump is taking office and vowing to eliminate wasteful spending, we have hope that PP will finally be defunded.

This is something that American Life League has worked toward for decades. In 1994, ALL began its Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP) program. According to the STOPP website, “The purpose of STOPP is really quite simple: We try toeducate people about the truth of Planned Parenthood and its programs so that that we can stand up let them know Planned Parenthood it is unwelcome; eventually it will have no choice but to close its doors.”

Under the vigilant and innovative leadership of the late Jim Sedlak, STOPP has helped close numerous PP facilities, educated communities about the atrocities it commits, and trained parents and other community leaders in methods to defeat the abortion giant.

Jim Sedlak passed away in 2022, and Ed Martin took the reins a year later. When he came to ALL, he was certainly no stranger to the pro-life movement or to politics. Ed is a lawyer with advanced degrees in both philosophy and medical ethics. An ALL press release explained that “he is a former CNN political contributor who served as the Missouri Republican Party chairman, on the Republican National Committee, and as a judicial clerk in the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.” In addition, Ed wrote The New York Times bestseller The Conservative Case for Trump, which he coauthored with Phyllis Schlafly and Brett Decker. 

In his role at ALL, Ed has helped raise awareness about PP, spoken to groups about the need to defund this organization, and helped create documents about the ubiquity of the abortion pill and about the compensation of its CEOs. Ed fervently believes in the mission of defunding PP, especially as the organization has added even more nefarious practices to its repertoire. This is evident in its shift from abortion in brick-and-mortar facilities to abortion via pills.

Now Ed is taking his expertise to the Trump administration. Come January 20, Ed will serve as the chief of staff for Trump’s Office of Management and Budget.

Ed explains that the “OMB is a unique place since it focuses on the budget of the federal government as well as on management of the resources.” In this position, he will be able to “examine all federal spending including Planned Parenthood.” Ed’s position will give pro-lifers the greatest opportunity in our history to do this, and STOPP is hoping to finally see one of its goals come to fruition.

It’s a goal that all pro-lifers should strive for. If we want a society where all human beings are respected and cherished – from creation until natural death – we must elect leaders with this goal in mind. And then we must hold them to their promises. We seem to have a unique opportunity regarding the nation’s budget with this new Trump administration, and we can only hope and pray that Trump will adhere to his promises. 

Ed is the kind of leader we need in D.C., and we are excited that he will be prioritizing the defunding of Planned Parenthood and helping Trump and other pro-life leaders see through the lies that PP tells the public. Abortion is not “healthcare.” Our country does not need PP. And we hope that soon the entire country will become aware of this.

As Ed stated, “What I have learned at ALL will serve me well in my new position. Judie Brown [ALL’s president] and the entire ALL team have always prioritized thorough research and backup and then taking fearless action and pursuit of the goals for life! I will follow their example.”

We know that he will, and we encourage everyone who cares about children – born and preborn – to courageously speak to your senators and congressmen and tell them that it is imperative that no more of our tax dollars should fund an organization that thrives on the murder of preborn babies and the destruction of our children.

Susan Ciancio is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has worked as a writer and editor for over 20 years. Currently, she is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine—the nation’s premier Catholic pro-life magazine. She is also the director and executive editor of ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program.