Court allows White House to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in 22 states | Planned Parenthood
A US appeals court agreed Tuesday to allow the Trump administration to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers in 22 states and Washington DC.
The order from the three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stays an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani. Talwani’s injunction had blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of its massive tax and spending bill that blocks Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements from Medicaid, the U.S. government’s health insurance program for low-income people, in all 22 states.
The panel’s decision is just the latest legal volley in the months-long war against the Trump administration’s provisions. The appeals court previously overturned another Talwani order in a separate case, brought by Planned Parenthood, which also blocked enforcement of the measure.
In a statement, a spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta called Tuesday’s decision disappointing but said he remained committed to “ensuring that vulnerable Californians can access the health care they need.” Bonta, a Democrat, co-led the package with his counterparts in Connecticut and New York.
Planned Parenthood did not respond to a request for comment.
Congressional Republicans passed this provision as part of their One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Specifically, it prohibits Medicaid funding to tax-exempt organizations that provide family planning and reproductive health services if they perform abortions and receive more than $800,000 in Medicaid funds in fiscal year 2023.
Planned Parenthood says the provision was passed with it in mind and has contributed to the closure of at least 20 of its health centers since Trump signed the measure into law in July. The reproductive health giant has warned that this measure could ultimately lead to the closure of 200 health centers. Since most of these centers are located in blue states that still allow abortion, their closure could significantly reduce access to this procedure. According to supporters of this measure, this measure amounts to a “backdoor ban on abortion”.
It is already largely illegal to fund abortions with federal dollars. Instead, Planned Parenthood uses Medicaid reimbursements to fund services such as STI testing, cancer screenings, and the provision of contraception. In 2024, Planned Parenthood centers treated people who rely on Medicaid with more than 1.5 million visits.
If these people can no longer turn to Planned Parenthood for reproductive health services, experts say they likely will have nowhere to turn.
After the First Circuit earlier this year stayed Talwani’s initial injunction in favor of Planned Parenthood, a group of Democratic attorneys general asked him to block enforcement of the law again, but on different grounds.
Talwani, who was appointed by Barack Obama, agreed to do so on December 2, saying states would likely be able to establish that the law constitutes an unconstitutional retroactive condition of their participation in the Medicaid program.
Talwani reasoned that the law did not clearly inform states which entities it covered and imposed a restriction they could not have anticipated after the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved their state Medicaid plans.
But on Tuesday, the First Circuit Panel — made up entirely of judges appointed by Democratic presidents — said the Trump administration had demonstrated it had a chance of prevailing on appeal by establishing that the law was not ambiguous and that Congress had the authority to make such changes.
