Planned Parenthood sued Monday to stop the Trump administration from blocking its Medicaid funding under the budget reconciliation act, arguing that the provision violates the U.S. Constitution by singling out the nation’s largest abortion provider.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which has 47 members, and its affiliates in Massachusetts and Utah argued that the defunding section represents a bill of attainder, referring to a legislative act that singles out and punishes a specific party without a judicial finding.
“The clear purpose of the Defund Provision is to categorically prohibit health centers associated with Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements,” said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Even though the measure does not mention Planned Parenthood by name, “it defines ‘prohibited entity’ specifically to target Planned Parenthood,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit, which names Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, was filed three days after President Trump signed the “big, beautiful bill” in a pre-Independence Day ceremony at the White House.
The lawsuit asked the court for a temporary injunction to prevent the defunding provision from taking effect, saying the results would be “catastrophic” for its nearly 600 health centers serving about 2 million patients per year.
“More than 50% of Planned Parenthood Member patients rely on Medicaid to access essential health services,” the motion reads. “In federal fiscal year 2023, more than one-third of Members’ total aggregate revenue was from Medicaid reimbursement for health care services the Members provided.”
Pro-life advocates hailed the defunding provision as the movement’s greatest triumph since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, while Planned Parenthood accused the Trump administration of seeking to enact a “backdoor abortion ban.”
The law’s provision prohibits Medicaid funding from going to any nonprofit entity engaged primarily in family planning that provides abortion and received more than $800,000 in Medicaid expenditures in fiscal 2023.
Such a subset is “made up almost entirely of Planned Parenthood members,” the lawsuit said.
The timeframe was reduced from 10 years to one year during budget negotiations, but Planned Parenthood said it could still result in the closure of nearly 200 clinics in 24 states, affecting 1.1 million patients.
Planned Parenthood provided a record 402,200 abortions in 2022-23, according to its latest annual report, even as the number of patient visits declines amid rising competition from federally funded community-health centers and online abortion-pill outlets.
The Hyde Amendment has long barred federal funds from being used to cover abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger, but abortion providers have said they do not bill Medicaid for elective procedures.
In a Monday statement, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America called the lawsuit a “desperate” attempt to bring back “the forced taxpayer funding to the Big Abortion industry.”
“As Planned Parenthood doubles down on lawfare and abortion politics, they prove exactly why the One Big Beautiful Bill is a historic victory for the people, stopping half a billion dollars in forced taxpayer funding of the corrupt abortion industry for the first time,” said Katie Daniel, SBA Pro-Life America’s director of legal affairs. “Life is winning and the nation’s abortion giant won’t be missed as their long decline continues.”
The lawsuit also accused the Trump administration of violating the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause with what it called a “naked attempt to leverage the government’s control over funds to punish Planned Parenthood.”
“We’re suing the Trump administration over this targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and the patients who rely on them for care,” said Planned Parenthood for America President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. “This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court.”
Representing Planned Parenthood are attorneys from the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.
