A federal judge in Boston has ordered the Trump administration to continue to reimburse Medicaid-funded services at Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid-supplied funding was slashed by a provision in President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and spending package. The organization sued the Trump administration earlier this month, shortly after the bill was signed into law. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued an injunction on Monday, indefinitely blocking the administration from carrying out the cuts. In her order, Talwani highlighted the present need for funding to provide for other essential services at the network of clinics.
“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”
It is illegal to use Medicaid to pay for most abortions. In their lawsuit, Planned Parenthood said that the cuts to all reimbursements were an end-around meant to shutter clinics that provide abortion and warned of “devastating consequences nationwide” if the cuts were allowed to take effect.
“There is no legitimate justification for the statute; rather, the true design of the Defund Provision is simply to express disapproval of, attack and punish Planned Parenthood, which plays a particularly prominent role in the public debate over abortion,” the lawsuit reads.
Alexis McGill Johnson, CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, praised the ruling and vowed to keep up the fight in a statement on Monday.
“We will keep fighting this cruel law so that everyone can get birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings and other critical health care, no matter their insurance,” she said.
