Appeals Court Allows Trump to Defund Planned Parenthood

A federal appeals court gave the Trump administration permission to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid money, ruling Thursday that a lower court’s blockade was premature.

The halt on money was part of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill budget law, enacted in July.

Planned Parenthood chapters argued — and Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, agreed — that the law unfairly targeted the abortion provider for its speech.

But the three-judge appeals panel, all of them Biden appointees, saw it differently and said the government likely has the better of the argument.

The court issued a stay of Judge Talwani’s ruling and allowed the money to be blocked while the case proceeds.

“Notwithstanding the contrary conclusion reached by the district court after its careful consideration of the matter, we conclude that defendants have met their burden to show their entitlement to a stay of the preliminary injunctions pending the disposition of their appeals of the same,” the appeals court said in its unsigned order.

Cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood has been a major goal of Republicans for years.

They achieved it in the budget law, which made significant changes to Medicaid, the government’s health care program for the poor, which is largely funded by Congress and is administered by each state.

Judge Talwani said the law amounted to retaliation against Planned Parenthood for its advocacy for “reproductive freedom.”