Judge Defies Congress, Trump on Planned Parenthood Funding

A judge has temporarily prevented President Donald Trump from revoking Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, after both chambers of Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act defunding the abortion giant and the president signed it into law.

Obama-appointee U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s temporary restraining order lasts just two weeks. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services to “take all steps necessary to ensure that Medicaid funding continues to be disbursed” to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood sued the Trump administration on Monday due to the provision in the reconciliation package that cuts taxpayer funding to groups “primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care” that provide abortions.

“The Trump Administration is ending the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion—a commonsense position that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with,” a White House official told The Daily Signal.

The restraining order holds that “defendants, their agents, employees, appointees, successors, and anyone acting in concert or participation with Defendants are hereby enjoined from enforcing, retroactively enforcing, or otherwise applying” the Medicaid funding provision of the bill.

The ruling allows the administration to enforce the provision against other providers.

The defunding Planned Parenthood provision of the bill was hailed as a monumental win for the pro-life movement because Planned Parenthood receives more than one-third of its overall funding from the U.S. government through grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. That translates to about $2 million per day, which taxpayers are on the hook for. Furthermore, taxpayer funding for the organization has been on an upward trajectory for about the past dozen years, having increased by 50% since 2013. 

Planned Parenthood is also a major provider of hormones for so-called transgender transitions in the country, which means defunding it is also combating the organization’s efforts in that regard as well.