House Speaker Mike Johnson made a triumphant return to his former organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and praised the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” as a significant triumph for American families and the pro-life movement.
The Louisiana Republican addressed the group’s 2025 summit in Florida with a pre-recorded speech last week after the House sent the legislation to President Donald Trump ahead of his July 4 deadline.
After touting the bill’s provisions to invest in national defense and border security as well as its tax cuts, Johnson added that it was also “a monumental win for American families and includes many of the pro-family victories that we’ve all been fighting to achieve for many decades.”
Johnson went over a few specifics.
“We increased the child tax credit. It’s going to help everybody,” he said. “We expanded paid family leave, we created investment accounts for newborns, and we lowered the tax burden on all American families, so that the American dream of starting a family and owning a home are within reach.”
The speaker then explained how the legislation aligns with ADF’s pro-life mission.
“We also did something that advocates in this audience have worked towards for as long as I’ve been in the arena,” Johnson said. “We finally passed legislation to make sure that the forced funding of abortion is no longer a thing in America. No longer will our tax dollars fund evil organizations explicitly focused on killing unborn babies. We defunded that.”
However, it remains to be seen if that victory remains fully intact. There is litigation in which a judge temporarily paused a ban on funds to Planned Parenthood that had been included in the bill.
Johnson credited ADF for helping to prepare him for the hardships of being speaker of the House.
“I do miss my days as an allied attorney and as a staff attorney at ADF,” he said. “It was a formative time in my life, prepared me in so many ways for the crazy job that I’m doing right now. And so my hat’s off to all of you for being involved, staying engaged, and being there to fellowship together … God bless the Alliance Defending Freedom and everybody involved. There’s never been a more important time for that work than there is right now.”
Kristen Waggoner, the president, CEO, and chief legal counsel of ADF, expressed her gratitude to Johnson in an exclusive statement to The Daily Wire.
“I appreciate the long-time relationship Speaker of the House Johnson has with ADF,” Waggoner said. “He was gracious to share at our annual Summit his perspectives on key issues for which Congress and the Trump administration are contending, and encouraged our allies and guests in attendance to do the same in their realms of influence, especially political leaders who are given platforms to legislate on behalf of the unborn and the family, our bedrocks of society.”
With a reference to the recent Supreme Court ruling that South Carolina is allowed to ban Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood, she continued, “Speaker Johnson celebrated the meaningful advancements in pro-life legislation, and we’re grateful at ADF for our recent major victory at the Supreme Court in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
“Combined, wins like Medina and pro-life provisions in the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ encourage us that the tide is turning back towards life, yet it will take continued diligence to ensure pro-life laws are not only passed — but fully upheld and enforced.”