Dan Sullivan on Abortion and Reproductive Health: Confirming Three Justices Who Overturned Roe, the Planned Parenthood Medicaid Cutoff, and the VA Abortion Ban for Alaska Veterans

Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan voted to confirm three of the five justices who overturned the Roe decision: Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. In July 2021 he also signed a brief by 228 members of Congress asking the Supreme Court to reconsider and overrule Roe, and in 2022 the Court did, opening the way to state bans under which women in Texas and Georgia were denied timely care.

On July 1, 2025, Sullivan cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut off federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, after voting against removing that provision. In Alaska, Medicaid patients at Planned Parenthood were expected to start paying on a sliding scale in October 2025. In March 2026 he voted to keep the Veterans Affairs rule that ended abortion care and counseling for veterans, including after rape or incest, and he voted to confirm the officials whose agencies ended that care, stopped paying for troops to travel for abortion care and withdrew federal guidance on emergency abortions.

In October 2025 Sullivan was one of 51 Republican senators who signed a letter asking the FDA to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, and 65% of Americans oppose a nationwide ban on the pill, according to KFF.

Dan Sullivan's Votes, Brief and Letter on Abortion

• Sullivan Voted to Confirm Three of the Justices Who Overturned Roe v. Wade. Dan Sullivan voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch on April 7, 2017, Brett Kavanaugh on October 6, 2018 and Amy Coney Barrett on October 26, 2020 as justices of the Supreme Court. All three joined the 2022 majority in the Dobbs case, which held that The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled. States then banned abortion. In Texas, ProPublica found The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized during second-trimester pregnancy loss after the state's ban, and in Georgia the state's maternal mortality review committee found that her death was preventable in the case of Amber Thurman, who could not get timely care.
• Sullivan Signed a 2021 Brief Asking the Supreme Court to Overturn Roe. In July 2021, Sullivan signed a brief by 228 members of Congress in the Dobbs case, and the signature line reads Dan Sullivan (AK). The brief argued that ROE AND CASEY SHOULD BE RECONSIDERED and, if appropriate, wholly or partially overruled. The Court overruled both cases in 2022, in an opinion joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, three of whom Sullivan had voted to confirm.
• Sullivan Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Law That Cut Off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Payments for a Year. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, so it would have failed without his vote. Section 71113 barred federal Medicaid payments to large nonprofit family planning providers that also offer abortions for services furnished during the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, July 4, 2025. Medicaid patients could not use their coverage at those clinics for birth control, STI tests or cancer screening. Planned Parenthood reported Medicaid visits dropping by 25% or over 250,000 visits that year and almost 25% fewer birth control pill packs were dispensed. The ban ended in July 2026, but Planned Parenthood says its affiliates have closed nearly 30 of its roughly 600 clinics, and a Florida clinic in Lakeland isn’t expected to reopen. The same law's Medicaid work requirements, starting in 2027, threaten to eliminate Medicaid coverage for 2.1 million women aged 19-49, the Guttmacher Institute estimates.
• Sullivan Voted Against Removing the Planned Parenthood Cutoff in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Sullivan voted no on waiving the budget rules for Senator Patty Murray's amendment to strike the Planned Parenthood provision from the bill. It needed 60 votes and failed 49 to 51. Had it passed, Medicaid patients would have kept their coverage at the clinics where, in the following year, Planned Parenthood said Nearly 30 health centers, which served roughly 41,000 birth control patients, have been forced to close.
• Sullivan Voted to Keep the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans in March 2026. On February 4, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs, and Collins's department then issued a final rule to reinstate the exclusions on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package, This rule is effective January 30, 2026. On March 25, 2026, Sullivan voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 103, a resolution to overturn that rule, and it failed 48 to 50. The rule ends a 2022 policy that allowed VA medical personnel to conduct abortions in cases of rape or incest, and the VA now prohibits the procedure at VA medical facilities unless the life of the mother is endangered, Military Times reported. A veteran who becomes pregnant after rape can no longer get an abortion or counseling about one through the VA, and family members covered by the VA's CHAMPVA program lose the same care.
• Sullivan Cast a Deciding Vote to Confirm Pete Hegseth, Whose Pentagon Stopped Paying for Troops to Travel for Abortion Care. On January 24, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense. The vote was 50 to 50 and the Vice President broke the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without Sullivan's vote. Five days later NBC News reported that The Pentagon has rescinded a Biden administration policy that reimbursed service members and dependents for travel to states where abortion is legal. The policy had covered troops and families who had to cross state lines because they were stationed in a state where abortion was banned or unavailable.
• Sullivan Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Withdrew Federal Guidance on Emergency Abortion Care. On April 3, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; he was confirmed 53 to 45. Two months later, Healio reported that CMS is rescinding a Biden administration-era policy on abortion care for women in medical emergencies, guidance that told emergency room doctors that when an abortion is the treatment needed to stabilize a patient, the physician must provide that treatment.
• Sullivan Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Withheld Family Planning Money in 2025. On February 13, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services; he was confirmed 52 to 48. That spring his department withheld grant payments to 144 Planned Parenthood sites in 20 states under Title X, the federal family planning program for people with low incomes, including the Anchorage clinic, where federal authorities cut that money earlier this year, the Alaska Beacon reported. The money was released in December 2025, but Planned Parenthood says clinics that have closed because of the withheld Title X funding and are unlikely to reopen.
• Sullivan Voted Against a Budget Pledge to Protect Medicaid Care for Mothers and Children in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Sullivan voted no on an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would have set up a reserve fund for protecting access to maternal and pediatric health care through Medicaid. It was rejected 49 to 51. Medicaid covers 41% of all US births, the Guttmacher Institute reports, and the budget resolution led to the 2025 law's Medicaid cuts.
• Sullivan Signed a Letter Asking the FDA to Restrict the Abortion Pill in October 2025. In October 2025, Sullivan was one of 51 Republican senators who signed a letter to Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary; the signer list includes Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC). The letter asked them to Reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and all its generic versions and to Suspend the distribution of mifepristone and all generic versions as an imminent hazard. NOTUS reported that the requests would heavily restrict access to abortion pills nationwide. In a KFF poll in June 2026, Americans said they oppose laws that would ban mifepristone nationwide (65%) and oppose making it a crime for doctors to mail abortion pills to patients in states with abortion bans (64%). The FDA’s re-evaluation of the safety of mifepristone is now underway (KFF).
• Sullivan Said Alaskans Had Other Options When Planned Parenthood Lost Medicaid. Asked about the Planned Parenthood provision on July 1, 2025, Sullivan said, in the Alaska Beacon's paraphrase, that Alaskans have other options, such as hospitals and community health centers. Alaska Medicaid patients at Planned Parenthood were expected to start paying on a sliding scale in October 2025, and nationally Planned Parenthood's Medicaid visits fell by over 250,000 in the year that followed.

What the Abortion Restrictions Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaska

• Planned Parenthood patients. Starting October 6, 2025, Medicaid patients in Alaska and Hawaii who otherwise could have been seen at no cost at Planned Parenthood were expected to pay out of pocket on a sliding scale, the Alaska Beacon reported. The cutoff lasted until July 2026, when The Medicaid billing was allowed to resume Sunday (AP).
• Family planning money. The Title X family planning grant that let the Anchorage clinic see people who earn a little too much for Medicaid was withheld in 2025: federal authorities cut that money earlier this year, the Alaska Beacon reported. The administration released withheld Title X money to some affiliates in December 2025, Michigan Advance reported.
• Women veterans. Alaska's women veterans and CHAMPVA families are covered by the VA rule that prohibits the procedure at VA medical facilities unless the life of the mother is endangered. Senator Mazie Hirono said the rule restricts a medical procedure for 460,000 women veterans of reproductive age nationwide.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on Abortion and reproductive health

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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