Tipsheet

One of the First Things Elon Musk, Vivek Plan to Cut Under DOGE

Federal funding for the country’s largest abortion provider may have had its hey-day after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut wasteful spending on useless programs such as transgender and woke DEI— with funding for abortion clinics the first to go. 

In a joint Wall Street Journal op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy outlined their plans to cut funding from Planned Parenthood— the nation’s largest abortion clinic. 

The two Trump-appointed cabinet picks suggested they are eying everything from "$1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.”

In response, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Alexis McGill Johnson called Musk and Ramaswamy “unqualified fanboys and agents of chaos.” 

“Musk and Ramaswamy are making clear how they intend to use their power: denying people care and wreaking havoc on our public health system, of which Planned Parenthood is an integral part — all in the name of supposed 'government efficiency,'" McGill Johnson said. "We've been here before — we are not new to shut down and 'defund' fights. We fended off a number of these attacks during Trump's first term — and Planned Parenthood health centers are still there serving millions of patients across the nation.”

Following the op-ed, Planned Parenthood said it saw a 1,200 percent increase in vasectomy appointments and a 760 percent in IUD appointments. 

The radical abortion provider claimed that DOGE will undercut women’s reproductive rights and care. 

“What Musk and Ramaswamy call 'federal overspending' provides critical and necessary sexual and reproductive healthcare to thousands of people every day—care that will disappear if they get their way," McGill Johnson continued. 

Planned Parenthood received $1.29 billion in total revenue, or 43 percent, with $553.7 million coming from the government, which reimbursed the clinic for providing medical services covered by programs such as Medicaid or government grants from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

To put that into perspective, only 27 percent of the abortion provider’s revenue came from donations and 24 percent from patient fees. 

In FY 2015, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that Planned Parenthood received $390 million in federal and state Medicaid reimbursements— government-issued public health insurance. These 16 states were able to use Medicaid funds to cover abortion procedures.