A day before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., 76 House Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues in defeating a measure aimed at preventing taxpayer dollars from bankrolling facilities that perform abortions and “trans” surgeries on children.
The moment came late Thursday afternoon when the GOP-controlled House of Representatives killed an amendment put forward by Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., to a FY2026 government spending bill. The amendment sought to ax Senate-inserted earmarks that allocate millions in taxpayer money to entities that conduct harmful “trans” procedures on minors and abortions.
The final House vote was 136-291, with nine members not voting. Here’s the roll call showing how every member voted.
According to an analysis conducted by Heritage Action, the aforementioned spending bill includes a $2 million earmark requested by Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for “pediatric mental health services” for the San Diego-based Rady’s Children’s Hospital. The hospital boasted as recently as last year about its so-called “gender affirming care” center and discloses on its website that it has performed such harmful procedures (including “hormone/puberty blocker therapy”) on at least 136 children.
The analysis further highlighted earmark requests from Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., to bankroll various other health clinics and hospitals in their respective states with histories of supporting and/or conducting harmful trans-related operations on children. This list also includes a $1,599,000 earmark request from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, for “labor and delivery equipment at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center” — which “operates a ‘pediatric gender clinic’ that provides sex-rejecting hormones for ‘gender diverse and transgender children,’” according to Heritage Action.
“Because of the fungible nature of money, government funding for one program frees up resources to fund other activities,” the Heritage report reads.
The government funding bill also reportedly includes a more than $4 million earmark request from Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., for Christiana Care Health Services to purchase “facilities and equipment to construct an urgent care facility.” As noted by Heritage, Christiana Care “performs abortions until 23 weeks of gestation, after a baby’s heart begins to beat and he or she can feel pain.”
“Earmarks like this are an easy way to send direct funding to abortion facilities, an end run around the Hyde Amendment that prohibits annual appropriations from funding abortions,” the analysis reads.
Other notable earmarks identified by Heritage include a $1,940,000 request by Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., for a Colorado university that currently offers a “2SLGBTQIA+ Scholarship” to “provide financial support to undergraduate and graduate students who identify as part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community — or as strong allies;” a $275,000 request by Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., for a Pennsylvania family clinic that supports racist critical race theory; and a separate $500,000 request by Fetterman for a workforce training organization that advances DEI ideology.
“I don’t know whether you realize it or not, but we’re $39 trillion in debt and still counting,” Norman said in a House floor speech ahead of Thursday’s vote. “Any of the communities that want this, put your money up and pay for it. The taxpayers cannot afford it.”
[READ: 46 House Republicans Help Democrats Defeat Measure Defunding ‘Activist’ Judges Boasberg, Boardman]
Helping Democrats shoot down Norman’s amendment wasn’t the only instance of betrayal among House Republicans on Thursday, however.
Fifty-seven GOPers also sided with Democrats in defeating an amendment sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massive, R-Ky., that aimed to block enforcement of the so-called automobile “kill switch.”
According to Newsweek, the technology “would be able to monitor d[r]iver behavior, detect impairment such as intoxication and intervene.” Massie’s amendment sought to “prohibit the use of funds made available by this Act to implement section 24220 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including any requirements enabling or supporting vehicle ‘kill switch’ technology, and to block federal spending for the execution or enforcement of such authorities.”
The final vote on Massie’s amendment was 164-268, with four members not voting.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
