Judge Blocks Provision Of Law That Strips Medicaid Funding For Planned Parenthood Affiliates

A federal judge has again blocked a provision Congress passed in July that stripped federal Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood affiliates, ruling that the language likely places an unconstitutional burden on states to apply vague criteria about the scope of the ban.

Acting on a lawsuit filed in July by 22 Democratic-led states, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday prohibiting the Trump administration from requiring states to figure out which of their health care providers are covered by the ban and stop funding the non-abortion services the clinics provide to Medicaid patients.

Talwani said the Constitution requires Congress to be clear when imposing requirements related to federal funding, so state officials can decide whether to accept what amounts to a restriction on their usual authority.

The ban contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “does not furnish states with clear notice as to the meaning and application of [the provision’s] criteria” for denying funding, the judge wrote in her 45-page opinion.

Talwani also said the ban appeared to be unconstitutional because it applies retroactively by requiring states to redo agreements they’ve already reached with federal Medicaid officials or managed care providers. The judge concluded that some states are so dependent on Planned Parenthood affiliates to serve Medicaid patients that trying to comply with the limits in the law could cause irreparable harm.

Talwani, an Obama appointee, put her ruling on hold for seven days to allow the Justice Department to seek relief from a higher court. Her order lifting the Planned Parenthood funding ban applies only to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit: the Medicaid programs run by 22 states and the District of Columbia.

Spokespeople for the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Planned Parenthood hailed the judge’s decision. “The district court again recognized the ‘defund’ law for what it is: unconstitutional and dangerous,” the organization said in a statement.

The case is just one of several pending around the country that could reverse state and federal attempts to strip the national network of reproductive health clinics of taxpayer dollars.

Planned Parenthood’s national organization, joined by its state affiliates from Utah and Massachusetts and an independent network of clinics in Maine, filed their own challenge shortly after President Donald Trump signed the defunding law in July. Talwani handled that lawsuit and granteda preliminary injunction against the law, concluding that it amounted to an unconstitutional “bill of attainder” against Planned Parenthood.

However, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals put her ruling on hold in September pending further review.

On a call with reporters ahead of the arguments in that case in November, Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said its clinics provided more than $45 million in free, non-abortion services for thousands of patients in September alone — services that Medicaid previously covered.

“These efforts aren't sustainable,” she warned. “While Planned Parenthood health centers are committed to ensuring patients can get the care they need, they can't continue to absorb tens of millions of dollars in additional costs each month.”

Seven states — California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Washington — have allocated state funding to offset the clinics’ loss of federal Medicaid dollars. But most states have taken no action, and those seven have accounted for just $200 million of the $700 million the organization received annually from Medicaid for providing services like birth control, cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, primary care and behavioral health.

As a result, dozens of Planned Parenthood clinics have closed this year — both in states where abortion rights are protected and states where the procedure is banned.

In the case ruled on Tuesday, the Trump administration asked Talwani to order the states pursuing the lawsuit to post a bond of approximately $7.2 million per year in case the courts eventually determine that the payment limits in the new legislation are legal. However, Talwani imposed a vastly smaller bond of just $100.

The judge said she saw no “monetary harm” to the federal government because the federal money states would pay to Planned Parenthood affiliates under her injunction would need to be paid to other providers for the same services if the order wasn’t in place.