A federal court in Boston dropped a legal hammer this week, halting an attempt by the Trump administration to choke off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and similar clinics across nearly half the country.
The ruling came from a sharply worded order declaring that the contested provision buried inside a sweeping tax-and-policy bill was simply too muddled — and too retroactive — to pass constitutional muster. According to the court, the measure would have blindsided states with unclear rules and higher healthcare bills, all while stripping access to basic reproductive care.
The injunction shields 22 states and Washington, D.C., after they banded together to argue that the federal government had moved the goalposts long after they signed on to Medicaid. Their warning was straightforward: if the law stood, more patients would lose access to contraception and preventive screenings, and state budgets would take the hit.
The judge froze the rule for seven days to give the administration a shot at appealing, though this wasn’t the first time the court found fault with the measure. Planned Parenthood, already battling the law in a separate case, said the ruling once again exposed a “dangerous” attempt to sideline reproductive healthcare providers.
The challenged provision stems from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which blocks Medicaid dollars from flowing to tax-exempt organizations that both provide reproductive services and perform abortions if they crossed an $800,000 Medicaid-funding threshold in 2023. Clinics say the fallout is already visible, with dozens of centers shuttered since the law was allowed to take effect earlier in the year.
States argued they never agreed to such a sudden and sweeping change when joining Medicaid — a program in which they historically decide who qualifies as a provider. And with the law’s reach left unclear, they said they were left to navigate a maze without a map.
For now, the funding stays in place. What happens next rests with the appeals process — and the political storm swirling around it.
