The Senate parliamentarian ruled against a provision of the GOP megabill that would have prevented Obamacare subsidies for health insurance plans that cover abortion services.

The provision in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill act would have been a victory for the anti-abortion movement, which has been trying to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortion providers like Planned Parenthood since the late 1970s.

Recommended Stories

• Republicans settle into post-Dobbs reality for 2026 election
• US won't contribute to global vaccine group Gavi until it has 're-earned' trust: RFK Jr.
• Takeaways from confirmation hearing for Trump CDC director nominee Susan Monarez

The measure, a small line within the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee section of the bill, did not survive the Byrd Rule, Senate Budget Committee Democrats announced early Thursday morning. The Byrd Rule requires Senate Parliamentarian to review reconciliation bills line-by-line to remove provisions that are extraneous to the budget and thus cannot be included.

Because budget reconciliation bills in the Senate only require a simple 51 vote majority, congressional majorities often use the process to ram through controversial legislation that would not pass the 60-vote majority threshold for normal legislation.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has canceled a variety of provisions in the Senate version of the big beautiful reconciliation package, including several energy provisions as well as food stamp reform.

The Obamacare abortion provision was rule as non-Byrd-compliant out as part of MacDonough’s review of the HELP portion of the bill. It is unclear whether Republicans might try to revamp it to make it compliant with the Byrd Rule.

Still to come is the review of the more sweeping provision in the Senate Finance section of the legislation that would prohibit Medicaid dollars from going to any family planning clinic that provides abortion services, a measure that would defund Planned Parenthood.

But MacDonough approved similar language to prohibit federal funding for abortion providers in the 2017 reconciliation bill during the first Trump administration that aimed to “repeal and replace” Obamacare.

The defunding language managed to stay in the bill, but the whole piece of legislation was killed by the last minute no-vote from the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said last week in a press conference with Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Alexis McGill Johnson told reporters that he believed the provisions would not survive the Byrd rule review.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the leading Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said Thursday, “Republicans shouldn’t get away with circumventing the rules of reconciliation.”

“Democrats are fighting hard against Republicans’ plans to increase out-of-pocket health care costs and restrict access to reproductive care,” said Merkley. “Republicans are scrambling to rewrite parts of this bill to continue advancing their families lose, and billionaires win agenda, but Democrats stand ready to fully scrutinize any changes.”