RALEIGH, NC — When politics trumps pragmatism, North Carolinians lose. Such was the scene at the General Assembly last week, as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle proved that political partisanship still reigns supreme over practical, common-sense reforms.

House Bill 192 (HB-192), entitled Defund Planned Parenthood & Cost Transparency, passed the State Senate on Monday with unanimous opposition from Democrats and full support from the Republican majority. The legislation now heads back to the House for consideration.

HB 192 contains two major provisions. The first requires hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities to provide patients with a good-faith estimate of costs for “shoppable” medical services, ensuring patients have greater transparency and protection from surprise medical bills. Facilities must also provide itemized statements before referring unpaid balances to collections. This provision enjoyed across-the-board support from Republicans and Democrats alike.

The second provision, however, directs the state Department of Health and Human Services to disenroll Planned Parenthood and its affiliates as Medicaid providers, cutting them off from contracts to deliver reproductive and preventive health services such as contraception, cancer screenings, and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This provision prompted a full party line split among members of the Assembly.

Consistent with its ongoing efforts to promote data-driven, bipartisan, consensus-driven solutions devoid of ideology, demonization, and polarization, the North Carolina Forward Party (NCFP) praised the bill’s patient-focused cost-transparency measures while condemning the partisan effort to defund Planned Parenthood and restrict access to essential health services. Part and parcel of this partisanship was the ongoing politicization and demonization practiced by representatives from both parties–behavior that was on full display as the bill was debated in Statehouse chambers.

Bill sponsor Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance) argued the change would close a remaining $830,000 Medicaid funding pathway, citing the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and a recent Supreme Court decision affirming states’ rights to bar Planned Parenthood from Medicaid. From her position on the Senate floor, Galey said Planned Parenthood focuses more on politics than health care, citing the nearly $5 million in funds transferred from Planned Parenthood South Atlantic to its political action committee in 2023 to support state Democratic candidates–including $100,000 used in campaigns for seats in the General Assembly.

Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) doubled down on this sentiment, stating in a press release this week that “It is our duty to ensure that your hard-earned tax dollars are spent thoughtfully and do not support partisan actors like Planned Parenthood. For years, we’ve chipped away at unnecessary funding [they] have received from the state…we now can cut them off completely.”

During the public comment period in last Monday’s Senate Appropriations/Base Budget Committee meeting, concerned citizens and Democratic lawmakers contended that the bill would worsen existing health care deserts, particularly for low-income women and rural residents. Sen. Val Applewhite (D-Cumberland) questioned how Fayetteville’s Planned Parenthood clinic could continue combating the county’s STI epidemic without Medicaid funding, while Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg) and others emphasized that Medicaid does not pay for abortions, making the ban punitive rather than protective.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic CEO Paige Johnson echoed this argument in an interview this past week, stating, “I want to make it crystal clear that this bill is about playing politics. It is a distraction to call it a defunding bill. It is about taking health care away from the people who need it.”

As our representatives from both major parties continue the back-and-forth in the General Assembly, the NCFP emphasizes that tying unrelated provisions together in a single bill is not only counterproductive, it is precisely the kind of divisive politics that erodes trust in government, and is not what the people of our state deserve.

NCFP State Chair Patrick Newton chimed in on Wednesday, stating that while the Party applauds the bipartisan spirit behind the bill’s cost-transparency measures, it cannot support pairing that progress with partisan maneuvers to score political points, especially when it strips vulnerable communities of care. 

“Linking cost reforms that benefit all North Carolinians with an ideologically driven effort to defund a single provider undermines the good parts of this bill and risks leaving thousands of patients with fewer options,” Newton said. “If this bill were solely about billing fairness, it would enjoy strong bipartisan support. But instead, political theater has been injected into what should be a straightforward patient-first reform.”

As the bill heads to the House for further review, the NCFP urges legislators in both chambers to separate the cost-transparency provisions from the Medicaid provider ban–and call on the Assembly to advance transparency for health care services without undermining anyone’s access to them. That is lawmaking we can all get behind.