In July 2021, Bryan Steil, the House member for Wisconsin's 1st District, signed the brief of 228 members of Congress asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the Court did so in June 2022. After that ruling, for more than a year virtually no legal abortions took place in Wisconsin; in July 2022 Steil voted against the Women's Health Protection Act, which would have protected abortion care by federal law.
In 2025 Steil cast a deciding vote for the House version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (roll call 145) and voted for the final law (roll call 190), which cut off Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for a year. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin stopped scheduling abortions for nearly a month to keep serving its Medicaid patients, and nationally nearly 30 Planned Parenthood health centers closed within a year.
Bryan Steil's Brief and Votes on Roe, Planned Parenthood and Abortion Access
- Steil Signed the Brief Asking the Supreme Court to Overturn Roe v. Wade in 2021. On July 29, 2021, Bryan Steil was among the 228 members of Congress who filed a brief in the Dobbs case, listed as "Bryan Steil (WI-01)", which argued that "Roe and Casey should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, wholly or partially overruled." On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court held that "Roe and Casey are overruled." In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin stopped providing abortions after the ruling, citing a state ban first written in 1849, and "virtually no legal abortions have taken place in the state" until it resumed services at two clinics in September 2023, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
- Steil Voted for the Law That Cut Off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Payments, After Which Nearly 30 Health Centers Closed. On July 3, 2025, Steil voted yes on final passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 218 to 214, after casting a deciding vote for the House version on May 22, when it passed 215 to 214. The law barred federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for items and services "furnished during the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act." The ban ran until July 2026, when "The Medicaid billing was allowed to resume Sunday," the Associated Press reported, but Planned Parenthood reported that nearly 30 of its health centers closed during the year of the cutoff and that Medicaid visits at its health centers fell by 25%, or more than 250,000 visits, compared with the year before.
- Steil Voted Against Protecting Abortion Care by Federal Law in July 2022, While Wisconsin Clinics Had Stopped Abortions. On July 15, 2022, three weeks after the Dobbs ruling, Steil voted no on H.R. 8296, the Women's Health Protection Act, which passed the House 219 to 210. The bill was written "to protect a person's ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider's ability to provide abortion services." It did not become law, and Wisconsin's halt in abortion care continued until September 2023. A majority of Americans disagree with Steil's position: in a Pew Research Center survey in January 2026, 60% said "abortion should be legal in all or most cases."
What the Abortion Actions Bryan Steil Backed Have Meant for Wisconsin Patients
- Wisconsin patients went more than a year without legal abortion care at home. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin stopped abortions over the threat of prosecution under the 1849 law, and Wisconsin Public Radio reported that patients and providers alike had been crossing state lines until two Milwaukee and Madison clinics resumed services on September 18, 2023.
- Wisconsin's Planned Parenthood stopped scheduling abortions for nearly a month under the Medicaid cutoff. Because the law's ban took effect on October 1, 2025, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin stopped scheduling abortions at its three abortion-providing clinics so it could keep billing Medicaid for its other patients; it "serves about 50,000 people, and about 60% of them are covered by Medicaid," the organization told WBAY. It resumed abortions on October 27, 2025, after it dropped a federal designation so that it no longer met the law's definition of a prohibited entity.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bryan Steil on Abortion and reproductive health
What is Bryan Steil's record on abortion and reproductive health under Trump?
Bryan Steil joined the 2021 congressional brief urging the justices to overrule Roe, and in 2025 he voted for the House and final versions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid payments for a year. During that year Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin paused abortions for nearly a month, and nearly 30 Planned Parenthood health centers closed nationally. In 2022 he voted against the Women's Health Protection Act.
Did Bryan Steil ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade?
Yes. Bryan Steil is listed among the 228 members of Congress who signed the July 2021 amicus brief in the Dobbs case, which asked the Court to reconsider Roe and Casey and overrule them if appropriate. The Court overruled both in June 2022, and legal abortion care in Wisconsin largely stopped until September 2023.
Did Bryan Steil vote to defund Planned Parenthood?
Yes. Bryan Steil voted on July 3, 2025 for the final One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with its one-year ban on Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, and he was one of the 215 votes that passed the House version 215 to 214 on May 22, 2025. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, about 60% of whose patients are on Medicaid, had to stop scheduling abortions to keep billing Medicaid for services such as cancer screenings and STI testing, until it found a way to do both.
Last updated: 2026-10-26