On Monday, Planned Parenthood sued the Trump Administration over a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, just days after President Donald Trump signed it into law. The sweeping domestic policy bill seeks to revoke Medicaid funding for the reproductive health care giant.
Federal US District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the provision for 14 days, and directed the Department of Health and Human Services to “take all steps necessary to ensure that Medicaid funding continues to be disbursed.”
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah all sued the Trump Administration, filing the complaint in a Boston federal court. The lawsuit is based on the unconstitutionality of the provision, as its “clear purpose is to prevent its nearly 600 health centers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements.”
Planned Parenthood has estimated that the defunding could force around 200 clinics to shutter, with blue states seeing a disproportionate number of closures, due to higher percentages of people who rely on Medicaid. The health care centers serve more than 1 million patients annually through Medicaid, and more than 80 million people in the US rely on Medicaid for insurance.
Though it is illegal to use Medicaid to pay for most abortions, Planned Parenthood relies on the insurance program to reimburse its other essential health care services, such as birth control, STI tests, and cancer screenings. The potential for closure of hundreds of clinics has led Planned Parenthood to call the Big Beautiful Bill’s provision a “backdoor abortion ban”.
The lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood explains, “The true design of the Defund Provision is simply to express disapproval of, attack, and punish Planned Parenthood, which plays a particularly prominent role in the public debate over abortion.” It continues, “Stripping away this patient volume and reimbursements for care provided will result in the elimination of services, laying off staff, and health center closures. The public health consequences for Medicaid patients and non-Medicaid patients alike will be dire and compounding.”
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the two networks in Utah and Massachusetts warned of the dire consequences for patients and women nationwide if the provision is taken into effect. “Already, in states across the country, providers and health center staff have been forced to turn away patients who use Medicaid to get basic sexual and reproductive health care because President Trump and his backers in Congress passed a law to block them from going to Planned Parenthood.”
While the legislation in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill does not explicitly mention Planned Parenthood, the law “prohibits federal funding for providers primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care that also provide abortion.”
The provision in President Trump’s extensive bill results in a devastating stipulation that would make it harder for patients to access the non-abortion services offered by local Planned Parenthood clinics, including screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted infections.
Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit asks the courts to declare the provision in President Trump’s bill unconstitutional on numerous grounds, or at least to preserve Medicaid funding for clinics that do not provide abortions.
