Planned Parenthood wins partial victory in legal fight with Trump
administration over funding cuts
[July 22, 2025]
BOSTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood won a partial victory Monday in
a legal fight with President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts
to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.
A provision in that bill ends Medicaid payments for one year to abortion
providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even
to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer things like
contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.
But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston granted a preliminary
injunction Monday that, for now, blocks the government from cutting
Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood member organizations that either
don’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least
$800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many Planned Parenthood organizations
and clinics would continue to get Medicaid reimbursements under that
decision and how many might not.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement after the injunction that it's
thankful the court recognized “the harm” caused by the bill. But it said
it's disappointed that some of its members will lose this funding,
“risking chaos, confusion, and harm for patients who could now be turned
away when seeking lifesaving reproductive health care.”
“The court has not yet ruled on whether it will grant preliminary
injunctive relief to other members,” the statement added. "We remain
hopeful that the court will grant this relief. There will be nothing
short of a public health crisis if Planned Parenthood members are
allowed to be ‘defunded.’”
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human
Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood
Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and
Utah.
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A Missouri and American flag fly outside Planned Parenthood in St.
Louis, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
 Planned Parenthood argued that
allowing the provision to take effect would have devastating
consequences nationwide, including increased rates of undiagnosed
and untreated sexually transmitted diseases and cancer.
“With no reason other than plain animus, the law will prevent
Planned Parenthood Members from providing vital — indeed, lifesaving
— care to more than one million patients,” they wrote. “This statute
is unconstitutional and will inflict irreparable harm on Planned
Parenthood Members and their patients."
Lawyers for the government argued in court documents that the bill
“stops federal subsidies for Big Abortion.”
“All three democratically elected components of the Federal
Government collaborated to enact that provision consistent with
their electoral mandates from the American people as to how they
want their hard-earned taxpayer dollars spent,” the government wrote
in its opposition to the motion.
The government added that the plaintiffs “now want this Court to
reject that judgment and supplant duly enacted legislation with
their own policy preferences. ... That request is legally
groundless.”
Hours after the lawsuit was filed, Talwani issued a temporary
restraining order that prevented the government from enforcing the
cuts. That order had been set to expire Monday.
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