Mike Lawler has a line he likes to use on abortion. At a September News 12 debate in his Hudson Valley district, he said it again:
"I am against a federal ban on abortion. I have said that repeatedly and would not support legislation to do that."
What he didn't talk about was the vote that actually hit the clinics in his district. Courier New York reported this week that Lawler did not address it, and his campaign didn't answer their request for comment.
Here's the vote.
Two votes to defund Planned Parenthood
Trump's budget bill, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," included a one-year ban on Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. Lawler voted for it twice:
- May 22, 2025 — the House passed the bill by a single vote. Lawler voted Yea.
- July 3, 2025 — the House passed the Senate's final version and sent it to Trump. Lawler voted Aye.
The ban reached far past abortion. It blocked Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for routine care like cancer screenings and birth control, Courier New York reported. The law targeted groups that provide abortions and got more than $800,000 in federal money in 2023. In New York, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates were the only organizations that fit.
New York paid the bill
New York's 47 Planned Parenthood health centers serve more than 200,000 patients a year. When the federal money stopped, the state stepped in. In October 2025, Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York would cover a full year of the missing Medicaid payments, more than $35 million in state money.
So in New York, Lawler's vote mostly moved the bill from Washington to Albany, which means to New York taxpayers.
Patients in other states weren't so lucky. Planned Parenthood reported that 20 of its clinics across the country closed during the defunding period, Courier New York reported.
The ban ran out. Republicans want it back.
The provision expired on July 4, 2026, and clinics could bill Medicaid for non-abortion care again. Anti-abortion groups are already pushing for a new ban in the next budget package. According to Courier New York, House Speaker Mike Johnson is planning one.
That's why Lawler's "I'm against a federal ban" line misses the question. The fight Republicans are planning is over cutting off the clinics again, and he has voted to do that twice.
The rest of the record
The defund vote isn't the only one. According to Courier New York, in 2025 Lawler also supported the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and voted for a Republican health care bill that abortion-rights advocates say would bar abortion coverage in certain plans. When NOTUS asked him in March whether Republicans should focus on abortion before November, he answered, "No."
He'd prefer the subject didn't come up at all.
What the record shows
Mike Lawler tells voters he opposes a federal abortion ban. In May and July 2025 he voted twice for Trump's budget bill, which cut Planned Parenthood off from Medicaid for a year, blocking payments for cancer screenings and birth control as well. New York spent more than $35 million in state money to keep its 47 clinics, which serve over 200,000 patients a year, from losing that care. The ban expired on July 4, 2026, and Republicans are pushing to bring it back.
