Will Donald Trump defund Planned Parenthood? The $120 million grant freeze explained

Donald Trump and his administration are reportedly expected to put a freeze on funding to planned parenthood and other organizations as the government investigates whether they are complying with his directive to end diversity initiatives.

All in all around $120 million that would go to numerous organizations is expected to be put on hold while the government looks into the matter according to an article from the Wall Street Journal. Pregnancy testing services, infertility services, birth control access, and sexually transmitted infections treatment are all thought to be at threat of having funding frozen.

Will Trump defund Planned Parenthood?

Out of the $120 million, around $20 million of that funding is for Planned Parenthood, the money would have gone to clinics in dozens of states across the country. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be looking into whether the organization is adhering to Trump’s new policy change, if it determines that Planned Parenthood are not, then the grant could be taken away completely.

That hasn’t happened yet, and hopefully it never will — right now the funding is only going to be frozen while the organization is investigated. It’s difficult to speculate whether HHS will find the it to be in breach of Trump’s directives, but it’s certainly a possibility we may have to prepare ourselves for.

Alex McGill Johnson, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America has accused the Trump administration of gunning for the organization no matter the cost to other services.

“The Trump-Vance-Musk administration wants to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers by any means necessary, and they’ll end people’s access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more to do it.”

What has the Trump administration said about Planned Parenthood before?

Back in October 2024, VP JD Vance hinted that Donald Trump would halt funding for Planned Parenthood as he claimed that taxpayer money shouldn’t be funding late-term abortions. The expected freeze on funds falls in line with Vance’s comments from last year.

But this is a classic case of Vance not knowing what he’s talking about because taxpayer funds aren’t actually allowed to be used on abortion procedures anyway. That means that nothing out of that $20 million would have gone towards the medical procedure. However, that money does allow the organization to provide STI treatment, birth control, and even cancer screenings.

Planned Parenthood has often been the target of conservatives due to the organization’s advocacy for abortion rights. The U.S. has already seen Roe v. Wade overturned by dogmatic Republicans — they’ve been trying to remove a woman’s right to choose since forever, this latest move on Trump’s part takes us one step closer to a terrifying reality.