BOSTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood won a partial victory Monday in a legal fight with President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.
A provision in that bill ends Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer things like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.
But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston granted a preliminary injunction Monday that, for now, blocks the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood member organizations that either don’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many Planned Parenthood organizations and clinics would continue to get Medicaid reimbursements under that decision and how many might not.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement after the injunction that it’s thankful the court recognized “the harm” caused by the bill. But it said it’s disappointed that some of its members will lose this funding, “risking chaos, confusion, and harm for patients who could now be turned away when seeking lifesaving reproductive health care.”
“The court has not yet ruled on whether it will grant preliminary injunctive relief to other members,” the statement added. “We remain hopeful that the court will grant this relief. There will be nothing short of a public health crisis if Planned Parenthood members are allowed to be ‘defunded.’”
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.
Planned Parenthood argued that allowing the provision to take effect would have devastating consequences nationwide, including increased rates of…