A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from enforcing a provision in the recent federal budget bill, known as the “Defund Provision,” which would have excluded Planned Parenthood and other health centers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. The decision was announced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led a coalition of 22 attorneys general and Pennsylvania in challenging the measure.
The Defund Provision targeted health centers that provide services such as cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and birth control to low-income patients. Attorney General Bonta stated, “I am grateful that the court has struck down the Defund Provision. We should be clear-eyed about what the Defund Provision represents: A scorched-earth offensive by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans against Planned Parenthood and other health centers that provide essential reproductive care to those with the least among us. My fellow attorneys general and I have been, and will continue, fighting back with equal force. Allowing the Defund Provision to take effect would mean that our people will get sicker and lose access to critical healthcare services they need.”
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found that states are likely to succeed on their claims because the provision does not clearly define which providers are affected, violating requirements under the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The court also noted that making this change retroactively imposed an unexpected condition on states participating in Medicaid.
The court concluded that allowing enforcement of this provision would cause irreparable harm to states and determined that both equity considerations and public interest favored blocking it.
In a related case, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Kennedy, an unpublished order from September 11 allowed implementation of the Defund Provision pending further litigation.
