The US bishops denounce ‘the most significant pro-life law ever’

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 08, 2025

“Social conservatives have dreamed for decades about bankrupting Planned Parenthood,” writes Matthew Hennessey in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. But it’s never been more than a dream. Until now.

For years, your tax dollars have subsidized the slaughter of unborn children. Sporadic efforts to cut off the tens of millions of dollars sent each year by Uncle Sam to Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest abortion provider, went nowhere. Until now.

Now, the “Big Beautiful Bill” pushed through Congress by the Trump administration contains a provision to defund Planned Parenthood. Hennessey, in his Journal op-ed, flatly declares: “It’s the most significant pro-life law ever.”

Does that sound like hyperbole? Go ahead: name a more important piece of pro-life legislation at the federal level. The Hyde Amendment was a big pro-life win, certainly. The Mexico City policy has been important, but that’s an executive order (routinely rescinded when Democrats control the White House) rather than an act of Congressional legislation. There have been important victories in the Senate on judicial appointments, but again those have not involved laws. So if the defunding of Planned Parenthood is not the most significant pro-life law ever,” what is? Frankly, the competition is not stiff.

When “the most significant pro-life law ever” is enacted, you might expect a celebratory message from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). If so, you would be disappointed. In a statement released after the bill’s passage, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the USCCB president, “lamented the great harm the bill will cause to many of the most vulnerable in society…”

Ironic, isn’t it? Unborn children are surely among “the most vulnerable in society” today. They are the ones most likely to die violently within the next few months. But rather than focus on the concrete achievement of cutting taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, Archbishop Broglio produced a fair copy of the vague rhetoric that Democratic lawmakers had used to denounce the Big Beautiful Bill. And if you thought Matthew Hennessey’s column might have been hyperbolic, brace yourself for this: “As its provisions go into effect, people will lose access to healthcare and struggle to buy groceries, family members will be separated, and vulnerable communities will be less prepared to cope with environmental impacts of pollution and extreme weather.”

To be fair, Archbishop Broglio did note that the USCCB saw some “positive aspects of an earlier version of the bill.” But he lamented that “the restriction on federal funds to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood was reduced to one year.” Fair enough; this battle is not over. The abortion lobby will fight fiercely to restore the taxpayer subsidies for the abortion leviathan. But if the Trump legislative steamroller managed to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood for one year, let’s put that in perspective; it’s one year more than any other legislative initiative—ever.

There are reasons aplenty to criticize the Big Beautiful Bill. In fact it is reasonable to doubt whether anyone, including President Trump himself, is entirely satisfied with this unwieldy legislation. Nevertheless, if the defunding of Planned Parenthood is indeed “the most significant pro-life law ever”—and if it isn’t, please tell me what is—it deserved a better reception from the US bishops.