Washington state officials will take $11 million from an emergency fund to give to Planned Parenthood to ensure it could keep aborting babies.

The decision followed President Donald Trump’s signing of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a massive budget law that defunded Planned Parenthood for one year.

The new federal law generally prohibits abortion vendors from receiving federal Medicaid funding.

Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson “said the state will use emergency funds from the Washington State Health Care Authority to backfill the estimated $11 million in lost federal support,” according to King 5, a local NBC affiliate.

“For a short-term gap like this, what we’ll be doing is going to our Health Care Authority. They have a large budget,” Ferguson said on July 9. “This is about a half of 1% of their budget — the millions we would need to backfill this.”

The money will only be used if a challenge to the law fails in federal court. While a judge temporarily blocked Congress from defunding Planned Parenthood, it seems likely the bill will go into effect. Law Professor Josh Blackman has pointed out the oddity of a judge ordering the executive branch to spend money on something the legislative branch has not appropriated.

In any case, Gov. Ferguson’s comments about the $11 million being a small part of the money Planned Parenthood will lose underscores the financial precariousness the abortion facilities are in due to funding cuts.

Prior to Congress passing the budget deal, Planned Parenthood said 200 of its “health centers” could close, even in pro-abortion states.

Already, Planned Parenthood officials in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Colorado are saying the financial cuts will hurt them.

While a permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood would have been better, the one year deal is a positive step toward closing the nation’s largest abortion vendor. It seems likely many of these Planned Parenthood facilities cannot last a year, so even if the money comes back they will not easily be able to reopen.

Planned Parenthood will say that this bill harms their patients who receive non-abortion healthcare. But in reality it is Planned Parenthood who is choosing to stand by their ardent support for killing babies instead of taking Medicaid payments. All Planned Parenthood has to do is stop performing abortions and it can take Medicaid patients again.

Congress should go further and continue to defund Planned Parenthood until it is completely gone. It could also bolster funding for federally-qualified health centers, which do not kill babies, to ensure everyone can access real healthcare, like wellness exams. Taxpayers should support the poor and neediest who need healthcare – but they should not be forced to subsidize abortions.