Trump's “Big Beautiful Bill” Is a Sneak Attack on Abortion
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With Donald Trump's “ big beautiful bill ” of taxes and Medicaid cuts up for consideration, abortion might be the last thing on anyone's mind. But a provision buried in the bill is Republicans' latest attempt to stop losing on reproductive rights. The current version of the GOP budget reconciliation bill includes language denying Medicaid funding to any “ large provider of abortion services .” This marks a big change in the GOP's recent approach to abortion policy. Through the early months of the Trump administration, Republicans in Congress have been remarkably reluctant to do anything big on abortion. But now they are using the president's signature legislation to wade back into the fight.
What made this bill different? The idea seems to be that Republicans can reframe unpopular government attacks on reproductive rights as more acceptable cost-cutting measures by relying on the Department of Government Efficiency to do their dirty work. If Americans like saving money, and are prepared to believe Elon Musk's arguments about fraud and waste, the theory goes, maybe Republicans can deliver for their socially conservative constituents without the plan backfiring. But the GOP's latest gambit is a reminder that there's still no magic bullet for conservatives when it comes to reproductive rights.
It's no surprise that anti-abortion leaders themselves have seized on this strategy. Trump has made some moves to placate abortion opponents, like announcing that no one will be prosecuted for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which protects access to clinics and places of worship, and pardoning several defendants convicted of violating it. But for the most part, he has frozen out the anti-abortion movement. The Department of Justice hasn't started enforcing the Comstock Act as an abortion ban. When conservative state attorneys general sued to force a shift, the Trump administration just last week asked the court to dismiss the suit for procedural reasons .
That doesn't mean Trump won't give anti-abortion leaders what they want later. Just Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Food and Drug Administration would investigate the safety of mifepristone and potentially impose new restrictions on it . But the anti-abortion movement will have to cajole Trump and hope for the best. He is the one holding all the cards.
For that reason, dressing up an abortion restriction as a DOGE priority makes sense. The administration has cut everything from funding for cancer research to military aid to Ukraine . Republicans in Congress, who seem primarily concerned about pleasing Trump, are also banking on the fact that the president will approve of abortion restrictions as long as they can be sold as something Elon Musk would love. And defunding providers could be consequential. Local clinics have struggled in recent years, as have state Planned Parenthood affiliates . Cutting these providers out of Medicaid will make it harder for them to remain open.
But the new strategy has risks, as the few Republicans who won districts lost Trump recognize. Cutting Medicaid is deeply unpopular . Most Americans view the program positively. One poll found that under 20 percent of Americans want Congress to cut Medicaid funding. So, cutting Medicaid in any way will likely be a political loser.
And “political loser” is a good way to discuss the GOP's conventional position on abortion. Most Americans want abortion to be legal . The go-to move for Republicans—to argue that Democrats are the true extremists on the issue —is harder when Republican-controlled states are considering ever more sweeping bans, many of them targeting people in states where reproductive rights are protected , or punishing people for donations or speech about abortion .
Still, the GOP may be emboldened because Trump won in 2024, even when Kamala Harris went all in on reproductive rights. Since then, Democrats seem less focused on the issue .
At the same time, if voters are actually paying less attention, it's probably because less seems to be happening. Republicans in Congress have sat on their hands. Trump has yet to make a big move. The truth is that plenty is still going on, with cases moving through state and federal courts, states poised to pass stringent new bills, and Trump's future moves still shrouded in uncertainty. The minute one of these events makes news, there's no reason to believe voters will be any happier with Republicans' position than they ever were.
Anti-abortion leaders present the 2024 election as proof that Republicans don't need to worry about reproductive rights anymore. But that reading of the election seems less and less convincing as time goes on. In 2024, Americans held out hope for what Donald Trump could do on immigration and inflation. Now, with unpopular tariffs , fears of toy shortages at the holidays , and the president wondering aloud if he has to follow the Constitution , he seems to be underwater on both of his strongest issues . As far as abortion was concerned, voters never liked what Republicans had to say—which is why Trump seemed to take pains to downplay the issue during the campaign. Voters in 2024 seemed to buy the pitch that Trump wouldn't or couldn't do anything to change the status quo—that he would treat it as a “state's issue.” Now, Republicans in Congress seem determined to prove them wrong.
We haven't seen the last of abortion as a major election issue, no matter what GOP leaders may wish. And the winning recipe for Republicans on reproductive issues isn't going to be to combine their unpopular position on Medicaid cuts with their position on abortion that voters already despise.
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