Share and Follow
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Planned Parenthood has decided to withdraw its legal action against the Trump administration’s decision to cut Medicaid funding for its abortion services across the nation.
Back in July, Planned Parenthood’s legal team initiated a battle to prevent the implementation of a section of President Donald Trump’s tax legislation, arguing that it unjustly targeted their facilities, potentially leaving patients with fewer healthcare options.
In December, a federal appeals court determined that the Trump administration could continue withholding Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood and similar health centers. This ruling mirrored a setback faced in January by another lawsuit from a coalition of primarily Democratic states, which is still ongoing.
Another related lawsuit concerning the funding cuts, filed in Maine by a network of impacted medical clinics, was voluntarily withdrawn in October.
Late on Friday, Planned Parenthood filed to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit. A request for comments was sent on Monday to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was noted as the plaintiff in this legal case.
“The goal of this lawsuit has always been to help Planned Parenthood patients get the care they deserve from their trusted provider. Based on the 1st Circuit’s decision, it is clear that this lawsuit is no longer the best way to accomplish that goal,” the organization said in a statement.
Under the tax provision in Trump’s tax bill, Medicaid payments would be ended if providers like Planned Parenthood primarily offered family planning services — things like contraception, abortion and pregnancy tests — and received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023.
Planned Parenthood was not specifically named in the statute, but the organization’s leaders have said it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states.
Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. While federal law bans taxpayer money from covering most abortions, many conservatives have long argued that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood used Medicaid money for other health services to subsidize abortion.
Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.
According to Planned Parenthood, 23 of their health clinics have been forced to close as a result of Trump’s tax bill, which went into effect on July 4. More than 50 clinics closed in 18 states last year, with the majority of those located in the Midwest.
“President Trump and his allies in Congress have weaponized the federal government to target Planned Parenthood at the expense of patients — stripping people of the care they rely on,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement. “Through every attack, Planned Parenthood has never lost sight of its focus: ensuring patients can get the care they need from the provider they trust. That will never change.”