In a decision with sweeping implications for reproductive health access across the country, a federal judge in Boston has slammed the brakes on a controversial Trump-backed law that sought to choke off Medicaid funding to all Planned Parenthood centers.
At the heart of the legal showdown is a provision buried in the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a Republican-crafted spending package designed, in part, to starve organizations offering abortion services of federal money. But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani saw through the rhetoric—and wasn’t having it.
Calling the measure a likely violation of multiple constitutional protections, Talwani issued a preliminary injunction stopping the law in its tracks. She ruled that the legislation appeared to be a classic case of Congress picking favorites—and enemies.
“Plaintiffs are likely to establish that Congress singled them out with punitive intent,” the judge wrote, noting that the law had been drafted with surgical precision to hit Planned Parenthood and its affiliates while leaving similar organizations untouched. That, she said, turned the measure into an unconstitutional *bill of attainder*—a legislative punishment imposed without a trial.
Talwani also pointed to broader constitutional problems: the law infringes on First Amendment associational rights and violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantees. The kicker? Some of the affected clinics don’t even provide abortions, but were being punished simply for being part of the Planned Parenthood network.
The Justice Department, defending the law, argued it was about cutting federal “subsidies for Big Abortion.” The White House called the judge’s decision “absurd, illogical and incorrect,” vowing to challenge it all the way. “It is orders like these that underscore the audacity of the lower courts,” a spokesperson said.
For Planned Parenthood, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The organization warned that nearly 200 of its 600 health centers across 24 states were staring down potential shutdowns without relief. Some had already stopped billing Medicaid in anticipation of the now-blocked provision taking effect.
In a defiant response, Planned Parenthood’s president, Alexis McGill Johnson, vowed to keep fighting what she called a “cruel law.” The battle, she emphasized, isn’t just about abortion—it’s about ensuring that people have access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, and other essential care, regardless of their insurance.
This ruling is just the latest chapter in a wider war over reproductive rights, one that shows no signs of cooling.
