Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision

Friday, Jul. 18, 2025

 A federal judge placed a temporary restraining order on a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, that would have stopped Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid payments for a year.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston ordered the block July 7 when New York-based Planned Parenthood Federation of America, joined by its Massachusetts and Utah affiliates, filed a lawsuit against the heads of the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and their agencies.

The judge ordered both HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and CMMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to respond by July 14. Talwani placed a temporary hold on the provision until July 21, when the next hearing in the lawsuit takes place.

The budget bill, which enacts key policy priorities of the Trump administration, calls for defunding, for a year from its signing July 4, certain healthcare entities called “community health providers” that provide abortions and had more than $800,000 in Medicaid receipts in 2023. It does not name Planned Parenthood. However, the country’s largest abortion provider argued it has been effectively singled out under the conditions of the “federal payment to prohibited entities” section of the law.

According to its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood received about $792.2 million in “Government Health Services Reimbursements & Grants” for its operations from 2022-2023 – a substantial portion of its $2 billion annual revenue.