Curiouser and curiouser – on Thursday, hours after the swearing-in of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as director of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Planned Parenthood apparently scrubbed their institutional Instagram posts.
As in, all of them:
Planned Parenthood caught the internet’s attention on Thursday after all of its Instagram posts were deleted within hours of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFK Jr.’s swearing in.
The organization, in an apparent nod to this move, posted a pair of eyes on a black background on its Instagram story with no explanation.
On Friday, Planned Parenthood posted another story, an animated gif with the words “I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me,” and later there were just three posts on its Instagram page, all about condom use.
As speculation swirled about the mysterious disappearance of the posts, many pro-life advocates started to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This also comes just days after a conservative watchdog nonprofit founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, urged the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut federal spending on Planned Parenthood.
That seems a lot like an organization that is taking steps to remove potentially embarrassing material.
As of this writing, Planned Parenthood’s X account is still live, but there have been no new posts since January 20th.
The new HHS chief has stated his agreement with the president on abortion laws, namely, that’ it is primarily a state issue:
During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy said that he believes “every abortion is a tragedy,” and expressed support for President Donald Trump’s assertion that states should handle the issue.
“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,” Kennedy said. “I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions.”
That’s hardly an extreme position on abortion. Younger voters in particular have come around to favoring some limits on abortion, while less than 10 percent favor abortion at any time for any reason.
See Related: RFK Jr. Answers Question on Abortion, Conscience, and Mifepristone
Forty Percent of Young Women Voted for Trump, Proving Rights and Values Transcend Abortion
Was there something on Instagram, maybe multiple somethings, that made Planned Parenthood worried about their billions in grants from HHS? Has the advent of Mr. Kennedy, who (perhaps surprisingly for a guy who was a Democrat until about five minutes ago), made them worried about some social media posts, perhaps supporting “any abortion at any time, up through the fetus’s high school graduation,” endangering the HHS cash flow?
That may be. The sudden deletion of, apparently, every post that an organization made on Instagram, would seem to be the action of an organization with something to hide.
Elon Musk’s DOGE will be looking at HHS, of course, and those grants will surely come under scrutiny. While abortion is a hot-button issue for many people on both sides of the debate and understandably so, the DOGE should look at this from a different angle: What constitutional authorization exists for the federal government to be propping up Planned Parenthood? Let PP solicit donations, let them start charging co-pays, and let the states help out if they choose – but Washington shouldn’t be spending billions on Planned Parenthood, whether they are performing abortions or not. There are (as I keep saying) $36 trillion reasons to cut off this gravy train.
