Federal judge widens ban on Planned Parenthood cuts

A federal district judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood abortion centers nationwide. Congress passed a one-year suspension of Medicaid funding to abortion providers that received over $800,000 in yearly federal reimbursements as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But the statute can’t be enforced on Planned Parenthood members until the abortion provider’s lawsuit against the Health Department is decided, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has ruled.

Talwani said she granted the injunction because Planned Parenthood seemed likely to succeed in claiming that the statute hurt its First Amendment right to associate, and also denied it equal protection under the law. Her decision was also in the public interest because many Planned Parenthood locations would close without an injunction on the funding cuts, Talwani said.

Didn’t Talwani rule on this issue before? The Monday ruling widened Talwani’s earlier injunction. A week ago, she issued an injunction blocking funding cuts to specific Planned Parenthood locations that were barred from providing abortions by pro-life state laws.

How did Planned Parenthood respond? The company’s CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, said Planned Parenthood would keep fighting the law so that patients could continue to use Medicaid to receive services. She didn’t specifically reference abortion, instead mentioning services including birth control, screening for sexually transmitted infections, and cancer screenings in her statement.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report on Missouri’s consumer protections lawsuit against Planned Parenthood.