Senate Narrowly Rejects Extension of Planned Parenthood Medicaid Funding Ban as Anti-Abortion Group Threatens Failing Grades

Students for Life Action said it will give lawmakers failing grades on its “pro-life generation report card” unless Republicans extend a provision that blocks Planned Parenthood health centers from billing Medicaid by July 4. The group wrote in a letter to members on Thursday that it will issue a negative score to all members of Congress if the centers regain access to taxpayer funds through Medicaid on that date.

The provision was included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and bars Planned Parenthood centers from billing Medicaid for services such as contraception and cancer screenings.

The measure caused the organization to lose more than $700 million annually in Medicaid funding. Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions. Lawmakers initially sought a 10-year or permanent ban but shortened it to one year to comply with Senate rules.

Sen. ) introduced an amendment during the April budget resolution vote-a-rama that would have extended the provision through 2035; the amendment was narrowly defeated. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life America, said in a statement that the one-year limit means abortion will return to the headlines at the midterms.

“With the extraordinary opportunity of the White House, Senate, and House in the hands of Republicans, pro-life voters asked for abortion vendors to go fund themselves,” Hawkins said. President Trump described the issue as a “very thorny issue” when asked about pushing Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.

Republicans are advancing a narrow party-line immigration enforcement funding bill, with the Senate conducting a marathon series of amendment votes on Thursday and the House potentially passing the measure as early as Friday morning.

U.S. Agency for International Development likely contributed to 600,000 “entirely preventable” deaths. Six Democratic senators sent letters on Thursday to two tobacco companies seeking details on their dealings with the Trump administration after the Food and Drug Administration granted marketing authorization to four flavored vaping products last month and issued new guidance allowing unauthorized products to remain on the market.

Acting CDC director Jay Bhattacharya wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the Trump administration’s Ebola response measures are scientifically stronger than those implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. S. government lab were charged with smuggling vials of deactivated mpox virus into the country from Africa and lying about it, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Detroit against Vincent Munster.

The governor of Louisiana signed a bill that will send people to jail for smoking marijuana near college campuses. Virginia measles cases have surged past 70 and are concentrated in Central Virginia.