Posted on 11/06/2026 11:41:25 AM PST by Morgana
Yesterday, I told our student leaders in 1,700 chapters that Tuesday night hurt, and that our anger can’t become a retreat.
Today, I want to tell Republicans in Congress what that means for them.
Republicans control the House and the Senate until noon on January 3rd. Government funding runs out on December 11th, so Congress is coming back to town whether it wants to or not.
I know a number of leaders are on Capitol Hill this week drawing up the GOP’s to-do list before the gavels change hands. So let me save them some time. The Pro-Life Generation has one item that goes at the top:
Defund Planned Parenthood for 10 years. Now. Before January 3rd.
Not one year. Not a hearing. Not a letter. Not “next Congress.” There is no next Congress for this majority.
10 years is the full budget window Congress can use. Anything less is a choice. And defunding is the minimum this majority owes the voters who gave it power, so it goes first on the list.
There Are No Excuses Left
We have already seen this movie.
In 2025, the House passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” with a 10-year defund of Planned Parenthood. Then the Republican-led Senate let an unelected, Democrat-appointed parliamentarian cut it to one year. The majorities were narrow and built on Republicans who didn’t share our core values, and when it came time to do hard things, they folded.
Even that one year mattered. Facilities closed. But the clock ran out, and Planned Parenthood went back on our tax dollars on July 4th, 2026. America’s 250th birthday.
Since then, Republicans have talked about another reconciliation bill to renew defunding. Yet, the House passed a budget resolution in July that left it out. Now some Republicans are pushing for one last party-line reconciliation bill before they hand over the gavels as the current one expires on December 11th.
Bottomline: A funding bill must be passed on the government shuts down in December. And a 10-year defund of Planned Parenthood must be in it.
And let me answer the excuses before leadership makes them:
* “There isn’t time.” You’ve got to pass something to keep the federal government funded after December 11th, so there’s no reason why defunding of the GOP’s largest political enemy is not included in it.
* “It can’t go on a spending bill that needs Democratic votes.” Fine. That’s what reconciliation is for: 51 votes, no filibuster, no Democrats required.
* “The parliamentarian won’t allow 10 years.” The parliamentarian gives advice. Senators decide. If leadership hides behind an unelected, Democrat-appointed staffer again, the pro-life movement will know exactly who made the choice.
* “We lost. Voters don’t want this.” Voters didn’t reject a pro-life GOP on Tuesday. They never got to see one.
Democrats have already told you what they’ll do in their first 100 hours: abortion up to birth nationwide and the end of the Hyde Amendment, which has saved an estimated 2.6 million babies by preventing taxpayers for paying for them. Planned Parenthood is first in line to cash in.
A 10-year defund signed into law before January 3rd is a wall they will have to tear down in public, with their names on the vote. Make them do it.
What South Carolina Should Have Taught Us
Now, if you are still struggling to understand why Tuesday happened, look at South Carolina.
When Sen. Lindsey Graham died in July, Gov. Henry McMaster appointed his sister, Darline Graham, to the seat. She had never held elected office. President Trump urged her to run for a full term and endorsed her. The establishment followed.
But her record was there for anyone who bothered to look:
* Our team at Students for Life Action reached out to her numerous times, asking about her views and actions on abortion. We got no response to our surveys or even a phone call. As a sitting Senator, she would not sign on to co-sponsor “Life at Conception Act.”
* Graham’s only political donation on record was to former state Sen. Katrina Shealy, one of South Carolina’s “Sister Senators” who joined Democrats to block SFLAction’s state version of the federal “Life at Conception Act,” named the “Human Life Protection Act” in South Carolina. Had Shealy and two other pro-abortion, female state senators not blocked the the bill in 2023, it would have made all abortions illegal in the Palmetto State.
You can’t fund the people killing pro-life bills and then ask pro-life voters to trust you with a Senate seat for six years.
Then came the only primary runoff debate on August 18th. Graham answered question after question by deferring to the President. At one point, she told voters, “National security is not my thing.” Everyone watching could see it: this was not a candidate ready for a general election.
Compare that to her runoff-challenger, Congressman Ralph Norman. He signed our Pro-Life Candidate Pledge, committing to protect Life from conception and stop taxpayer-funded abortion. He filed a Supreme Court brief to help stop Planned Parenthood from collecting South Carolina’s Medicaid dollars. He was a proven, tried-and-true pro-life fighter.
Yet, Students for Life Action was the only national pro-life group to endorse him.
Others in our movement endorsed Graham. Not because of her record, which barely existed, but because the President had picked her. She won the runoff by a few points, and on Tuesday she lost the seat to Democrat Annie Andrews. South Carolina will send a Democrat to the U.S. Senate for the first time in nearly three decades.
This was not a surprise. It was a choice.
And this isn’t new for us in South Carolina. After three Republican “Sister Senators” sided with Democrats to stop the “Human Life Protection Act,” Students for Life Action was the only pro-life organization to go after them in their June 2024 primaries. And Shealy, Penry Gustafson, and Sandy Senn all lost to pro-life candidates we supported.
ALL THREE.
That’s what accountability looks like. It works.
Here’s the lesson:
Never trust a pro-choice Republican. And never hand out the pro-life label because a politician, any politician, told you to.
Get Out of the Pocket
Republicans keep acting like the kids in the school cafeteria, desperate for anyone to sit at their lunch table. So, they take the bullies, the preps, and the smelly kids, even the ones who will treat them badly, because they just want to look popular.
The result?
For the past two years, we had a slim Republican majority but never a pro-life majority in Congress. The pro-life members couldn’t move our priorities because of the pro-abortion Republicans leadership invited to the table. Voters didn’t do that math. They just saw a party sitting on its hands, and on Tuesday they didn’t feel convicted to show up for it.
Now, I’m not making excuses for leadership. They chose who sat at that table.
But here’s the harder truth for our own movement: too many pro-life organizations have been sitting at that table too.
When national pro-life groups hand out endorsements based on who the White House picked, rather than who will actually fight for the babies, we stop being a movement. We become a party auxiliary. And party auxiliaries don’t get policy. They get thank-you notes or speeches at galas.
The abortion lobby doesn’t work this way. They demand everything from Democrats, and Democrats deliver.
It’s time for the pro-life movement to remember who we are. We are activists. We are called to hold every politician accountable, in both parties, at every level, including the ones who tell us they’re on our side.
So, here’s how Students for Life Action is going to do it:
* In Congress: If you won’t cosponsor the “Life at Conception Act,” which would end all abortions, you will not be considered pro-life by us. Period.
* In the states: If you refuse to fill out our survey and pledge to cosponsor your state’s “Life at Conception Act,” you will not earn the pro-life label either.
* In primaries: We will continue to do what we did to South Carolina’s Sister Senators. We’ll show up, knock doors, and tell voters the truth.
No more pro-abortion Republicans.
GOP elected officials, you have been warned. To Everyone Who Wants Abortion Abolished…Now
Some of you reading this have been frustrated with the pro-life movement for a long time. You’ve watched politicians campaign on Life and then do nothing. You’ve watched pro-life groups make excuses for them. You’re done with half-measures sold as victories.
I hear you. I feel the same.
So let me be clear about where we stand at Students for Life.
Abolishing abortion has been the mission of Students for Life since I changed our mission statement and blasted the world “abolish” on our website in 2013. The destination on our Political Roadmap to Abolishing Abortion isn’t “fewer abortions.” It’s all abortions abolished.
We disagree about some things, including whether leading with prison sentences is the way to get there. But we agree on what matters most: every child deserves to be protected by law, and politicians who won’t say so don’t deserve our votes.
That’s what this fight is about: Not protecting a party. Not protecting a majority. Protecting babies.
Defunding Planned Parenthood isn’t the finish line. It’s the test of whether this Congress meant anything it said. Passing it doesn’t end abortion, but it takes taxpayer money away from the nation’s largest abortion business. If Republicans won’t even do that with 59 days left and nothing to lose, you’ll know exactly who they are.
And I’ll make sure every pro-life voter in 2028 primary and general elections know it as well. That’s my promise to you.
What You Can Do This Week
The Republican majority has 59 days left. Here’s how we make them count:
1. Call your U.S. Representative and both of your Senators this week. The message is one sentence: “Defund Planned Parenthood for 10 years in reconciliation before January 3rd.”
2. Ask them directly whether they’ll cosponsor the “Life at Conception Act.” Write down the answer and report back to me. We will.
3. Read the Roadmap at studentsforlifeaction.org/roadmap and share it with every pro-life person you know.
4. Text ACTION to 24714 so you get our alerts the moment a vote is scheduled.
Republicans spent two years asking us to be patient. Tuesday showed them what patience got them.
We won with Dobbs. We won’t repeat the book of Judges though, making deals until a generation arises that doesn’t know what we fought for.
GOP: Defund Planned Parenthood. 10 years. Before January 3rd. No more excuses.
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What the hell for? The Dems will just lavish them with everything they want or need come January! Why would you suggest the Republicans continue with the political suicide for no gain whatsoever?
Please stop with the articles about what republicans “should” do. They should have been doing it for two years.
I thought they had already done that.
Cut them off for one more year at least.
I’ve not seen anything about it
Kubuki theatre they will just reinstate.
The Republicans should have passed the Save America Act before the election, and a lot of other bills.
I would certainly go for defunding planned parenthood indefinitely if that could be done. Never used to have it & never needed it either. It accomplishes one thing as a rule...murder.
There's a LOT of things they should [or SHOULD HAVE] done, but given Thune's work ethic, don't hold your breath!
I would have gone for it TWO YEARS AGO.
Those useless POS won’t do squat. I expect Thune the Goon and Mikey to call it for the year for the holidays.
I would have gone for it a decade ago.
What is the point The Dems will just bring spending back.
What is the point The Dems will just bring spending back.
Does anyone have a STRATEGY or TACTICS on how to achieve this?
A typical beltway strategy is to build a bill that has a little something for the swing votes and votes that are for sale to gain a majority.
A typical way is an omnibus bill.
Cut funding for abortion.
Cut funding for the ATF. Every state polices Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms. ATF is redundant.
Cut funding for many nice to have but we can’t afford programs.
Reward states who successfully reduce FRAUD WASTE ABUSE.
Example, here in GA there is big FRAUD WASTE ABUSE. The Dems now replace the Pubbies to run it. If the Dems cut FWA their budget should be rewarded. That is compromise.
Both in the next 2 months and the next 2 years we will have to compromise. We can drive the agenda such that we pick where we compromise. Or we can play the victim and let the other side dictate where we compromise.
Both the ProLifers and every other faction that is focused on ISSUES needs to learn how to also focus on strategy and tactics.
Too late. They diddled until it didn’t matter anymore.
Not only would anything we did be reversed come January, they’re also already planning to use the “rural hospital” emergency to refund Planned Parenthood as a “medical provider” and expand its services.
Illegals hit hardest Xi sends more women fast.
Republicans should have done a lot of things these past two years, but didn’t. They’re happy now, that they can continue to do nothing, but can talk smack about what they’d do if they were in power.
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