Federal judge pauses Trump plans to defund Planned Parenthood

A judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stripping Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood after Congress and President Donald Trump agreed to partially defund the nonprofit through passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said in her order partially granting a preliminary injunction that the bill unconstitutionally punishes Planned Parenthood member organizations that do not provide abortions. 

The injunction will risk “at most minimal harm—financial or otherwise—to the Trump administration while the lawsuit proceeds,” Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote.

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Talwani’s order arose from a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a massive budget bill that passed Congress this month with no Democrat support. Trump signed the bill into law on July 4.

A provision in the bill stripped Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, which the nonprofit said could force it to close about 200 of its 600 facilities and deprive about half of its customers, more than one million people, of services that do not include abortion.

Planned Parenthood attorneys noted in court filings that Medicaid does not cover abortion.

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The attorneys argued that cancer and sexually transmitted infections would go undetected, especially for low-income people, and that more unplanned pregnancies would occur because of a lack of contraception access. They said the consequences of losing Medicaid funding “will be grave.”

Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys had previously argued in court filings that the purpose of the budget provision was to stop “federal subsidies for Big Abortion” by freezing federal funds for certain Medicaid recipients who provide abortions. Weakening Planned Parenthood has been one of the pro-life movement’s leading priorities since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Talwani granted a temporary restraining order two weeks ago in favor of Planned Parenthood. The judge initially offered no explanation for her decision, a move that led to widespread backlash among Republicans who described it as judicial overreach. Days later, Talwani offered more context in a subsequent order.

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The preliminary injunction will leave in place the pause on defunding Planned Parenthood indefinitely, but the Trump administration is likely to appeal the order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

DOJ attorneys had previously argued to the court that blocking a measure that was passed by Congress and signed by the president was an extraordinary move and unjustified.

“Beyond the futility of the claims on the merits, Planned Parenthood fails to demonstrate imminent irreparable harm to justify an injunction, asserting only classically reparable economic injury and irrelevant potential harm to patients, who are third parties not before this Court,” DOJ attorneys wrote.