Mark Green resigning from Congress after House finishes budget bill
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Catholics Praise Defunding of Planned Parenthood in Major Congressional Budget Bill
‘America’s women and children deserve better and American taxpayers should have no role in funding these atrocities,’ Ashley McGuire said. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB) praised the proposed measure. The pro-life group CatholicVote on Thursday said Catholics should be “ecstatic” at the House passage of the bill. “If the exceptions are only the way Planned Parenthood will get paid, you believe that every abortion will become a life-or-death situation,” said Katie Brown, the national director of the American League for Life. The bill will still allow for the murder of millions of babies in some limited circumstances, Brown said, including if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. It will also end federal funding of gender transition surgeries for minors, as well as expanding the Child Tax Credit. The House passed the bill 215-214; the Senate is expected to vote on the measure later this week. The measure would defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
Catholic leaders and pro-life advocates on Thursday praised the passage of the House of Representatives’ major budget bill, hailing the reconciliation package’s defunding of abortion providers including Planned Parenthood.
The massive spending and tax cut bill, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” includes a provision that forbids Medicaid dollars from flowing to abortion providers. The ban will last for 10 years, according to the text of the bill.
Federal funding will still be permitted for clinics that assist pregnant women in medical emergencies or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
‘The intrinsic dignity of the human person’
The abortion defunding measures have received strong support from Catholic advocates around the U.S.
Ahead of the vote this week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB) praised the proposed measure in a letter to U.S. representatives and senators.
Stressing “the sacredness of every human life and the intrinsic dignity of the human person, created male and female, and made in the image and likeness of God,” the bishops said they “strongly support[ed]” the ending of taxpayer funding for abortion providers as well as a ban on funding for “gender transition for minors.”
Following the bill’s early passage on Thursday, Catholic Association Senior Fellow Ashley McGuire said in a statement that the organization “applaud[ed] the House’s efforts to protect women and children from exploitation at these dangerous clinics.”
“American taxpayers overwhelmingly oppose funding abortions and harmful hormones for children,” McGuire said. “Planned Parenthood is a corporate abortion chain that is a leading provider of both, without basic and commonsense health and safety guardrails.”
“America’s women and children deserve better and American taxpayers should have no role in funding these atrocities,” she said.
Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins, meanwhile, said in a statement that abortion providers were “cut out” of the bill and “told to go fund themselves.”
The pro-life group “will now turn our attention to the U.S. Senate” in order to help secure the bill’s passage there, she said.
The advocacy group CatholicVote on Thursday said Catholics should be “ecstatic” at the House passage of the bill.
“We’re closer to defunding Planned Parenthood, ending federal funding of gender transition surgeries for minors, [and] expanding the Child Tax Credit,” the organization said in a post on X, urging Catholics to “pray the Senate passes this bill.”
🚨 The “Big, Beautiful Bill” has passed the House 215-214.
Catholics should be ECSTATIC. We’re closer to
• DEFUNDING Planned Parenthood
• ENDING federal funding of gender transition surgeries for minors
• EXPANDING the Child Tax Credit
Pray the Senate passes this bill. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/6z0wWR48pT
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) May 22, 2025
SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said Congress “took a big step toward stopping forced taxpayer funding of the Big Abortion industry.”
The passage of the bill was “a crucial win in the fight against America’s No. 1 cause of death — abortion,” Dannenfelser wrote.
“There is no excuse for forcing taxpayers to prop up a scandal-ridden industry that prioritizes abortions, gender transitions, and partisan political activism instead of prenatal care, cancer screening, and other legitimate health services that are in continual decline,” she said.
Dannenfelser urged the Senate to “do its part” and pass the bill.
“More than 400,000 babies a year, their mothers, and countless American taxpayers are depending on you,” she said.
Not all reaction from pro-life groups was positive, however. Katie Brown Xavios, the national director of the American Life League, said in a statement that the bill’s allowance for abortions to be performed in some limited circumstances “will still allow for the murder of millions.”
“Give Planned Parenthood an inch, and it will take a mile,” she said. “If the exceptions are the only way Planned Parenthood will get paid, you better believe that every abortion will now become a life-or-death situation so that Planned Parenthood ensures that it will get its money.”
Republican congressman Green to resign after tax bill vote
Republican U.S. House Representative Mark Green said on Monday that he will resign from Congress after the House votes again on President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill. Green’s resignation will narrow Republicans’ majority in the House to 219-
“Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up. As a result, today I notified the Speaker and the House of Representatives that I will resign from Congress as soon as the House votes once again on the reconciliation package,” Green said in a statement.
Green’s resignation will narrow Republicans’ majority in the House to 219-212, allowing Speaker Mike Johnson to still be able to lose up to three votes on any legislation and pass it.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Ismail Shakil)