Obama judge blocks Trump from cutting funds to Planned Parenthood in 22 states
A federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration cutting federal funds to Planned Parenthood in 22 states on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston sided with a group of Democratic state attorneys general who had filed a lawsuit against the provision in the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July.
‘We won a court order stopping the federal government from playing politics with our health care system.’
Talwani said that the lawsuit would likely prevail when considered fully, but she paused the injunction to allow the administration seven days to appeal.
The same judge also blocked the cutting of abortion funds in July, but an appeals court later allowed the cuts to continue while the lawsuit progressed. The former order was criticized as “unjust judicial activism” by Lila Rose of the Live Action pro-life group.
Planned Parenthood said that at least 20 clinics had shut down since the order to cut funding was renewed during appeal. It argued that as many as 200 centers would shut down if the order was allowed to stand.
Alexis McGill Johnson, the CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, argued that the order would reduce availability of other health care provided to women.
“This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court,” Johnson said in July.
Among those celebrating the order was New York Attorney General Letitia James, an avowed opponent of the president.
“We won a court order stopping the federal government from playing politics with our health care system and defunding Planned Parenthood,” James wrote. “We’ll continue our lawsuit to defend New Yorkers’ health care and reproductive freedom from unconstitutional attacks.”
Talwani was appointed to the court in 2013 by former President Barack Obama.
She is also responsible for blocking Trump’s cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over the government shutdown in October. The president responded by blaming Democrats for refusing to vote to end the shutdown.
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