On July 1, 2025, Ohio Senator Jon Husted cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which barred federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, after voting against removing that provision the day before. In that year Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio closed its Franklinton health center in Columbus, and nationally Planned Parenthood reported Medicaid visits dropping by 25% or over 250,000 visits.
On March 25, 2026, Husted voted against taking up a resolution to overturn the Veterans Affairs rule that ended abortion care and counseling for veterans, including after rape or incest. He had voted to confirm the officials whose agencies ended that care, withdrew federal guidance on emergency abortions, withheld family planning grants for most of 2025 and stopped paying for troops to travel for abortion care.
In October 2025, Husted signed a letter with 50 other Republican senators asking the FDA to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone. A KFF poll found that 65% of Americans oppose a nationwide ban on the pill.
Jon Husted's Votes, Confirmations and Letter on Abortion and Reproductive Health
- Husted Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Law That Cut Off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Payments for a Year. On July 1, 2025, Jon Husted voted yes on H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50-50 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 the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment, July 4, 2025. Medicaid patients could no longer use their coverage at those clinics for birth control, STI tests or cancer screening. Planned Parenthood said Nearly 30 health centers, which served roughly 41,000 birth control patients, have been forced to close in that year, and that almost 25% fewer birth control pill packs were dispensed. The ban expired in July 2026, but a Florida clinic in Lakeland isn’t expected to reopen (AP). 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.
- Husted Voted Against Removing the Planned Parenthood Cutoff in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Husted voted no on Senator Patty Murray's motion to waive the Budget Act for Amendment 2771, which would have struck the Planned Parenthood provision from the bill. The motion failed 49-51. Had it passed, Medicaid patients would have kept their coverage at the clinics where, according to Planned Parenthood, two-thirds (66%) of health center closures occurred in rural areas or places short of doctors in the following year.
- Husted Voted to Keep the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans in March 2026. On March 25, 2026, Husted voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 103, a resolution to overturn the Department of Veterans Affairs rule on reproductive health services. The motion to proceed failed 48-50, so the resolution never reached a vote. The rule, effective January 30, 2026, was issued to reinstate the exclusions on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package, including for CHAMPVA family members. It ended 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). Senator Mazie Hirono said the rule limits care for 460,000 women veterans of reproductive age.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Doug Collins, Whose Department Wrote the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans. On February 4, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Collins's department issued the final rule that took effect in January 2026, under which a veteran who becomes pregnant after rape or incest can no longer get an abortion, or counseling about one, through the VA.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Withdrew Federal Guidance on Emergency Abortion Care. On April 3, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Two months later, Healio reported that CMS is rescinding a Biden administration-era policy on abortion care for women in medical emergencies, guidance that had told emergency room doctors that when an abortion is the treatment needed to stabilize a patient, the physician must provide that treatment. In Texas, a state with a ban, ProPublica found that blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54%.
- Husted Cast a Deciding Vote to Confirm Pete Hegseth, Whose Pentagon Stopped Paying for Troops to Travel for Abortion Care. On January 24, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. The vote was 50-50 and the Vice President broke the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without Husted's vote. 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 care was outlawed or unavailable.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Withheld Family Planning Money for Most of 2025. On February 13, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. That spring his department withheld grant payments to 144 Planned Parenthood sites in 20 states under Title X, the federal family planning program for low-income patients. The money was released in December 2025, but Planned Parenthood says dozens of clinics that closed because of the withheld money are unlikely to reopen (Michigan Advance).
- Husted Voted Against a Budget Pledge to Protect Medicaid Care for Mothers and Children in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Husted 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. It was rejected 49 to 51. Medicaid covers 41% of all US births, the Guttmacher Institute reports, and the budget process that followed produced the 2025 law's Medicaid cuts.
- Husted Signed a Letter Asking the FDA to Restrict the Abortion Pill in October 2025. In October 2025, Husted was one of 51 Republican senators who signed a letter to Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, and the signer list includes Jon Husted (R-OH). 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%). The FDA's re-evaluation of the drug's safety is now underway, KFF reported.
What the Planned Parenthood Cutoff Jon Husted Voted For Meant for Ohio
- Columbus clinic closed. WYSO reported that the law's end to Planned Parenthood's Medicaid payments led the regional organization to cut 17 staff members and to close its Franklinton location in Columbus, and it closed the center on Nov. 28, 2025. The center had offered walk-in emergency contraception, STD testing, birth control, vaccines.
- Family planning grants. Ohio was one of three states, with California and Texas, that saw the biggest decreases in Planned Parenthood participation in the Title X family planning program, KFF found, after Kennedy's department withheld the grant payments in 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jon Husted on Abortion and reproductive health
What is Jon Husted's record on abortion and reproductive health under Trump?
Jon Husted cast one of the 50 votes for the 2025 law that cut off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid payments for a year and voted against removing that provision, and in that year Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio closed a Columbus health center. In March 2026 he voted to keep the VA rule that ended abortion care for veterans. He signed the October 2025 letter asking the FDA to restrict mifepristone, and he voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mehmet Oz, Doug Collins and Pete Hegseth, whose agencies narrowed reproductive care.
Did Jon Husted vote to defund Planned Parenthood?
Yes. Jon Husted voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which barred federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood from July 4, 2025 to July 4, 2026, and the bill passed 50-50 with the Vice President's vote. The day before, he voted against an amendment to strike that provision. Medicaid billing was allowed to resume in July 2026 after the ban expired, but the Franklinton center in Columbus stayed closed.
Can veterans in Ohio get an abortion through the VA?
In most cases they cannot, under a VA rule Jon Husted voted in March 2026 to keep: he voted against overturning the VA rule, which bars abortions at VA medical facilities unless the life of the mother is endangered, with no exception for rape or incest. That covers the VA medical centers in Ohio as everywhere else. He had voted in 2025 to confirm Doug Collins, the VA secretary whose department issued the rule.
Does Jon Husted want to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone?
Jon Husted signed an October 2025 letter asking the FDA to suspend distribution of mifepristone and to bring back in-person dispensing, which would end prescriptions of the pill by mail (letter). The KFF poll found that Americans also oppose making it a crime for doctors to mail abortion pills to patients in states with abortion bans (64%). The FDA review the letter urged is now underway, KFF reported in 2026.
Last updated: 2026-10-25