Oregon sues Trump administration over Planned Parenthood funding

A clause in the Big Beautiful Bill that prevents Planned Parenthood and other major nonprofit abortion facilities from getting Medicaid financing for a variety of unrelated health care services is the subject of a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration on Tuesday by Oregon and a group of other liberal-led states.

Clinics nationwide that depend on federal financing to function have been put in jeopardy by the bill.

According to a statement from Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, defunding Planned Parenthood is not about being fiscally responsible; rather, it is about focusing on healthcare providers that certain politicians dislike. Thousands of Oregonians visit Planned Parenthood for basic medical care, contraception, and cancer screenings. Removing Medicaid funding only makes it more difficult for people to maintain their health; it doesn’t eliminate that need.

The lawsuit is being brought by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who described it as a backdoor, brutal abortion restriction that breaks the law in several ways.

One day after Planned Parenthood achieved a significant win in its own lawsuit against the measure in Boston, where a federal court imposed a preliminary injunction preventing the ban from going into force against Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country, the state filed its appeal.

Although abortions are already illegal under federal law, the new defund clause in the measure that Congressional Republicans passed earlier this month goes one step further. Also, it prohibits nonprofit abortion providers that earned $800,000 or more in Medicaid revenue in 2023 from obtaining any of this funding for the following year, including for non-abortion-related services like yearly physicals, cancer screenings, birth control, and STD testing.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s attorneys, the measure prohibits federal subsidies for Big Abortion, Congress has the constitutional right to refuse to give taxpayer money to organizations that perform abortions, and Planned Parenthood’s stance shouldn’t override Congress’s.

Bonta’s office joined Planned Parenthood officials in announcing the state lawsuit on Monday, claiming that the provision specifically and illegally targets Planned Parenthood and its affiliate clinics. They called it a direct attack on the healthcare access of millions of low-income Americans, with a disproportionate impact on women, LGBTQ+ people, and communities of color.

According to Bonta’s office, the measure endangered the stability of Planned Parenthood’s 114 clinics throughout California, which serve roughly 700,000 patients a year, many of whom use Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid equivalent, and threatened $300 million in federal funding for clinics in California, where the organization is the largest abortion provider.

According to Rayfield’s office, almost 60% of Planned Parenthood members in Oregon are eligible for Medicaid assistance through a state plan. Medicaid reimburses around $16.7 million to Planned Parenthood each year.

Amy Handler, the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, stated in a statement that this bill is needless and hazardous. Cancers will go undiagnosed, STIs will go untreated, and patients will not receive the birth control or abortion treatment they require to plan their families and futures because the Trump administration and its congressional supporters are working to make it more difficult for people to acquire care. In order to safeguard access to care, we are eager to collaborate closely with the Attorney General’s office.

The attorneys general of Connecticut and New York are also parties to the action, in addition to Oregon and California. The attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia are all joining them, along with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

The states contend in their lawsuit that the measure is illegally vague, that it violates Congress’s spending authority by singled out Planned Parenthood for unfavorable treatment, that it will negatively impact people’s health, and that it will cost states more than $50 million more in Medicaid programs over the next ten years.

Planned Parenthood also claimed in its lawsuit that the measure violated its affiliates’ and its own constitutional rights, including free expression, by purposefully singled them out for punishment.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote on Monday in her decision to grant Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction that she was not ordering the federal government to finance elective abortions or any medical procedure that would not otherwise qualify for Medicaid coverage, nor was she prohibiting the federal government from regulating abortion.

Obama appointee Talwani noted that she was also not mandating that the federal government expend funds that had not been appropriated for Medicaid or any other funds.

Rather, Talwani wrote, her order prevents the Trump administration from specifically targeting Planned Parenthood Federation members for Medicaid reimbursement exclusion because they would likely demonstrate that such a targeted exclusion is unconstitutional.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that Talwani’s order granting the injunction was not only irrational but also incorrect, stating that the Big, Beautiful Bill was lawfully passed by both chambers of the Legislative Branch and signed into law by the Chief Executive.

These kinds of orders highlight both the judicial branch’s disarray and the lower courts’ chutzpah. “We anticipate a final triumph on the matter,” Fields stated.

A request for further comment on the state lawsuit was not immediately answered by the White House.

Los Angeles Times, 2025. Click here: atlatimes.com. Tribune Content Agency, LLC is the distributor.