A federal appeals court Thursday cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce a provision of the new tax cut and spending law that will cut off Medicaid funding from some Planned Parenthood clinics.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold a preliminary nationwide injunction issued in July by a lower-court judge that blocked the Trump administration from cutting funding to all Planned Parenthood affiliates.
The lawsuit contests a provision in the new law that imposes a one-year ban on state Medicaid payments to health care nonprofits that also offer abortions and received more than $800,000 in federal funding in 2023.
Taxpayer money is already prohibited from covering most abortions.
Instead, the law cuts reimbursement for other health services provided by Planned Parenthood and other health centers, such as cancer screenings and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, Planned Parenthood leaders said their organization was deliberately targeted. But at least one major family provider in Maine said they will also be impacted and sued the administration.
In the lower court’s ruling, Judge Indira Talwani wrote the law likely violates the Constitution’s “bill of attainder clause,” which prohibits Congress and state legislatures from imposing punishments on individuals or specific entities without trial.
Talwani was appointed by former President Obama. All three judges on the appeals panel were appointed by former President Biden.
In its motion for a stay on Talwani’s order, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) called her logic “flimsy” and argued the Supreme Court has an extremely high standard for invalidating laws under the bill of attainder clause
“Halting federal subsidies bears no resemblance to the punishments—including death, banishment, and imprisonment—previously understood as implicating the clause,” HHS wrote.
In addition, Justice Department attorneys argued, “the elected Branches determined that taxpayer funds should not be used to subsidize certain entities that practice abortion—conduct that many Americans find morally abhorrent.”
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) said the decision puts as many as 200 health centers at risk of closure, and blocks more than 1.1 million patients from using their Medicaid insurance at Planned Parenthood health centers.
“With this decision, patients and providers are in limbo … all because the Trump administration and its backers want to attack Planned Parenthood and shut down health centers,” PPFA President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement. “This is a blow, but the fight isn’t over.”
