Appeals Court Allows Federal Medicaid Cuts to Planned Parenthood

The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services can withhold Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood affiliates under a federal appeals court’s order Thursday.

The HHS in the case argued that that the provision in congressional Republicans’ tax and spending law imposing a one-year pause on Medicaid reimbursements to centers that offer abortion care doesn’t amount to a targeted punishment prohibited under the US Constitution.

“Notwithstanding the contrary conclusion reached by the district court after its careful consideration of the matter, we conclude that defendants have met their burden to show their entitlement to a stay of the preliminary injunctions pending the disposition of their appeals of the same,” Thursday’s order said.

The ruling stays a July 28 order from Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts enjoining the HHS from applying the provision to exclude any of Planned Parenthood’s roughly 600 health centers from Medicaid reimbursements while litigation over the statute proceeds.

The case centers on a provision advanced by Republicans and anti-abortion advocates eager to crack down on federal funding for abortion care providers.

The language pausing Medicaid payments to centers that offer abortion care and received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023 would effectively cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood clinics and a major Maine family planning provider, which has also sued the administration over the law.

Talwani wrote in her order protecting all Planned Parenthood affiliates that the law likely violates the Constitution’s bill of attainder clause, which prohibits Congress and state legislatures from imposing punishments on individuals or specific entities without trial. The law also likely infringes on the Fifith Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, Talwani said.

The HHS had argued in its motion for a stay on Talwani’s order that the US Supreme Court has a high standard for invalidating laws under the bill of attainder clause, and that the Medicaid provision “refrains from designating particular individuals for punishment and instead adopts a generally applicable definition of prohibited entities that focuses on future activity.”

“The elected Branches determined that taxpayer funds should not be used to subsidize certain entities that practice abortion—conduct that many Americans find morally abhorrent,” Justice Department attorneys argued on behalf of the HHS.

The government also asserted that Talwani violated Congress’ federal spending authority by requiring it to continue funding these centers.

The Hyde Amendment already prohibits Medicaid funds from being used to provide abortion care, and Planned Parenthood maintains that it follows this restriction by only using federal Medicaid dollars to cover contraception, cancer screenings, STI testing, and other care to low-income individuals.

Planned Parenthood has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.

The case is Planned Parenthood Fed’n of Am. v. Kennedy, 1st Cir., No. 25-01755, order filed 9/11/25.