WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, affirmed her support for the Trump administration’s pause on funding for family planning services and called on Congress to permanently end funding to Planned Parenthood.
The Trump administration paused $27.5 million in funding for organizations providing family planning, contraception, cancer screenings, and other reproductive health services on March 31.
The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association reported 16 organizations received notice on March 31 that funding is on hold, pausing funds to at least 11 Planned Parenthood Federal of America regional affiliates and all recipients of federal family planning grants in seven states.
The funding will continue to be withheld while the federal government investigates whether the organizations are in compliance with the law.
Following the Trump administration’s freeze, Ernst renewed a push to permanently prohibit federal tax dollars from funding Planned Parenthood.
The bill Ernst introduced in 2023, dubbed the Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act, would redirect federal funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates to other women’s health services, including prenatal and postpartum care, contraception, and cancer screenings.
“I am adamantly pro-life and would much rather see the dollars go to actual women’s health care,” Ernst said in an interview with The Daily Iowan.
Ernst said Planned Parenthood performs abortions, and she would rather see the funding go to organizations that do not perform abortion care.
Ernst has also worked on the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2025, which would restrict federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year unless the organization and its clinics certify that they will not perform abortions or provide funds to other entities that perform abortions during that year.
Under the bill, if this requirement is not met, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture must recoup any federal assistance given to the organization.
The bill’s funding restriction does not apply to abortion in cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the mother is at risk.
“Those dollars, I would like to see them directed to women’s health care, but health care specifically, and for me, that does not include abortion,” Ernst said.
Sheena Dooley, communications manager for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said Iowa has not been impacted by the funding pause.
Iowa does not directly receive the Title X grant. Instead, funds are received and funneled to the Family Planning Council of Iowa, which then awards funds to recipients such as Planned Parenthood North Central States.
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Dooley said the Planned Parenthoods that are direct grant recipients were impacted first, including Minnesota’s, and the organization is evaluating the impact of the funding pause and what its next steps will be.
“[The funding pause] is about denying access to essential health care,” Dooley said. “[Title X] is the only federal program that allows for working-class individuals to access essential health care like birth control, STI testing, breast cancer screenings, and wellness exams.”
Dooley said this is the second time Title X, a federal program to provide funding for family planning services, has lost funding under Trump.
Planned Parenthood left the federal Title X family planning program in 2019 rather than comply with a rule prohibiting Title X grantees from providing or referring patients for abortion care, except in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother.
Former President Joe Biden lifted the rule, and Planned Parenthood rejoined Title X, but now that Trump is back in office, Dooley said he is going after the program again.
“The larger picture is the impact on Americans who are going to be unable to receive essential health care, and I think that that’s going to have devastating and long-lasting consequences for the health outcomes of those populations,” Dooley said.