Planned Parenthood Wins a Temporary Injunction Over Medicaid Funding

Planned Parenthood won a temporary injunction on Monday that allows its clinics to continue to receive Medicaid funding for services that are unrelated to abortion.

The organization sued the Trump administration earlier on Monday over a new law that essentially bars Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal Medicaid payments, claiming that the legislation is an unconstitutional attack on Planned Parenthood’s national organization and its locally run health care clinics.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Massachusetts, challenges part of the new domestic policy bill that President Trump signed on Friday. Judge Indira Talwani issued the temporary injunction, which expires in 14 days.

Under the new law, some nonprofit health centers that provide abortions cannot be reimbursed by Medicaid for providing any other medical services, including birth control, annual checkups and tests for sexually transmitted infections. (The use of federal Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions has long been illegal.)

The new law applies only to nonprofit organizations that generated $800,000 or more in revenue from Medicaid payments in the 2023 fiscal year. Because few abortion providers are large enough to meet that threshold, the lawsuit argues that the law is intended to target Planned Parenthood for its advocacy of abortion rights, violating the group’s freedom of speech.

“The Defund Provision is a naked attempt to leverage the government’s spending power to attack and penalize Planned Parenthood and impermissibly single it out for unfavorable treatment,” Planned Parenthood said in its lawsuit.