A federal court on Friday again blocked the Trump administration from prohibiting Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal funds, marking the fourth time the Trump administration has been blocked from defunding the organization.
President Donald Trump’s reconciliation bill includes a measure that defunds Planned Parenthood for one year, which was set to take effect in October. The ruling will prevent that from happening, delivering a blow to the anti-abortion movement — at least temporarily.
The government indicated in a court filing ahead of the ruling that it intends to challenge Judge Indira Talwani’s latest order and expects the case to potentially reach the Supreme Court. It could face better prospects there: The Supreme Court effectively decided in June that states can remove Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.
Federal law already prohibits federal money from being used to cover abortion directly, but conservatives have long fought to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving government funds for other medical services due to its status an abortion provider.
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The latest effort has faced setbacks in court. Talwani first blocked the Trump administration from cutting Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood in late July, declaring that the policy violated the organization’s First Amendment rights.
Planned Parenthood, Talwani wrote, said that if the government successfully defunds the organization, “clinics will be forced to reduce or eliminate healthcare services and turn away Medicaid patients, that some Member clinics are likely to temporarily or permanently close, and that all Planned Parenthood Member patients are likely to face increased wait times and disrupted or reduced access to care.”
As a result, the judge concluded, defunding Planned Parenthood is not “in the public interest.”
The Trump administration filed an appeal to challenge Talwani’s order. However, the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion, specifically to allow Talwani to issue a new ruling. The Trump administration is expected to appeal Friday’s ruling.
The reconciliation law does not name Planned Parenthood specifically, instead saying that “affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, and clinics” that provide abortions are not allowed to receive federal funds. However, Talwani wrote in the decision that the description used in the law and the way in which lawmakers have explicitly said that it defunds Planned Parenthood violates the federal law.
“The legislative backdrop and statements in the record only corroborate that this was Congress’s intent,” Talwani wrote.
Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit challenging the reconciliation provision was filed in early July, shortly after Trump signed the bill into law. The organization argued in its initial filing that prohibiting it from serving patients who rely on Medicaid would have “devastating consequences nationwide.”
“Stripping away this patient volume and reimbursements for care provided will result in the elimination of services, laying off staff, and health center closures,” Planned Parenthood said in the complaint. “The public health consequences for Medicaid patients and non-Medicaid patients alike will be dire and compounding.”
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