Latest news with #PlannedParenthoodFederationofAmerica
The Hill
7 days ago
- Health
- The Hill
Proposed rule bans nearly all abortions at VA hospitals
The VA said in the proposal that it is reversing a 2022 rule that for the first time allowed the department to provide abortions in limited circumstances to pregnant veterans and their eligible family members, even in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Between 1999 and 2022, the VA excluded almost all abortions and abortion counseling for veterans and their families from their medical benefits package. By reversing the rule, officials are seeking to ensure taxpayer dollars are not used to terminate pregnancies, according to a filing released Friday. They also called the Biden administration's decision to implement the interim rule 'inappropriate' and 'legally questionable.' A final rule could come as soon as the public comment period on the measure closes on Sept. 3. Reproductive rights groups said the move robbed service members of the ability to control their bodies and their futures. 'Since taking office, the Trump administration has repeatedly attacked service members, veterans, and their families' access to basic reproductive care, including gender-affirming care,' Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, referring to the VA's decision in March to stop providing transgender veterans with hormone therapy. 'Taking away access to health care shows us that the Trump administration will always put politics and retribution over people's lives.' Anti-abortion groups, meanwhile, applauded the Trump administration's decision, calling it a 'major win' for the movement. 'Instead of prioritizing the real and urgent needs of our veterans, the Biden-Harris Administration turned VA hospitals into abortion centers – violating longstanding law and betraying the will of the American people who strongly oppose forced taxpayer-funded abortions,' the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said in a statement. 'Thankfully, this injustice is now corrected.'
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Democrats sue over efforts to defund Planned Parenthood
SACRAMENTO, California — Attorney General Rob Bonta and 22 other Democratic attorneys general and governors are suing the Trump administration over a bid to strip federal funds from Planned Parenthood clinics. 'We need to just call it what it is: punishment for Planned Parenthood's constitutionally protected advocacy for abortion,' Bonta said at a press conference Tuesday morning. 'The hypocrisy is really hard to ignore: a party that claims to be defenders of free speech only seem to care about it when it aligns with their own agenda.' Congressional Republicans have wanted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood since Trump's first term. If they're successful, about 200 of the 600 clinics the nonprofit operates around the country could close, with over half of them in California. 'California is the most impacted state in the country,' said Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. 'It's important to have a California lens on this.' Bonta, the other attorneys general, and the governor of Pennsylvania argue in their filing that the Republican mega-spending and policy bill Trump signed in early July violates the First Amendment by targeting Planned Parenthood's national umbrella organization for its advocacy. They also allege it violates the Constitution's spending clause by being too vague and illegally singles out Planned Parenthood for punishment without due process. While the spending bill doesn't mention Planned Parenthood by name, it set funding criteria that targets the organization directly. The law bars Medicaid funds from going to reproductive health clinics that provide abortions and are part of national networks that received over $800,000 in Medicaid funding. Bonta said it isn't clear if any other providers would fall under the law, but at least one organization in Maine has also filed a suit. Federal funds already cannot be used for abortion, but Planned Parenthood clinics rely heavily on Medicaid funding to cover other services, with as much as 50 percent of its patients nationally enrolled in the government program. In California, eight in ten patients are covered by Medicaid. 'The federal government is once again playing politics with our health care system, with devastating consequences,' New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. 'This administration's shameful and illegal targeting of Planned Parenthood will make it harder for millions of people to get the health care they need.' Bonta's lawsuit is separate from one filed by Planned Parenthood clinics in Massachusetts and Utah along with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the umbrella organization that oversees state affiliates which run the clinics. In that case, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on Monday ruled that her preliminary decision to block the legislation's funding cut would remain in place. In siding with Planned Parenthood's arguments, Talwani wrote that Congress was trying to illegally punish clinics for the political work of the broader Planned Parenthood organization. Planned Parenthood, she concluded, was the ''easily ascertainable' target of the law when the legislation was passed.' Talwani also found that apart from the abortions the clinics perform, patients who rely on them for other services such as cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases would be harmed if Medicaid funding was cut off. In the week leading up to Talwani's decision, California's clinics were briefly defunded and five clinics closed down, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte announced. 'That lawsuit is just one strategy to fight back, and the reality is that an attack this severe requires a multi pronged response with both short and long term strategies,' Hicks said. 'These attacks are not going away, and this administration has certainly shown their colors.' Solve the daily Crossword
Medscape
29-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
US Judge Blocks Trump-backed Medicaid Cuts to Planned Parenthood
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Monday blocked enforcement of a provision in U.S. President Donald Trump's recently enacted tax and spending bill that would deprive Planned Parenthood and its members of Medicaid funding, saying it is likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued a preliminary injunction after finding the law likely violated the U.S. Constitution by targeting Planned Parenthood's health centers specifically for punishment for providing abortions. That provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the Republican-led Congress denied certain tax-exempt organizations and their affiliates from receiving Medicaid funds if they continue to provide abortions. The U.S. Department of Justice argued that "the bill stops federal subsidies for Big Abortion" and urged Talwani not to let Planned Parenthood and its members "supplant duly enacted legislation with their own policy preferences." Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said the law's text and structure made clear that it was crafted to cover every member of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the parent organization, even if they were not named. That specificity likely transformed the provision at issue into an unconstitutional "bill of attainder," an act of Congress that wrongly seeks to inflict punishment without a trial, the judge said. "Plaintiffs are likely to establish that Congress singled them out with punitive intent," Talwani wrote. She said the law also violated Planned Parenthood members' equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment and burdened the right of some who do not provide abortions to associate with their parent organization in likely violation of the First Amendment. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields in a statement called the ruling "not only absurd but illogical and incorrect." The administration is already appealing an earlier ruling by Talwani in the same case. "It is orders like these that underscore the audacity of the lower courts as well as the chaos within the judicial branch," Fields said. "We look forward to ultimate victory on the issue." The judge last week had issued a partial injunction that only covered some Planned Parenthood members. Because an earlier temporary restraining order was expiring, Planned Parenthood said many health centers were forced to stop billing for Medicaid services ahead of Monday's ruling. Planned Parenthood has said the law would have "catastrophic" consequences for its nearly 600 health centers, putting nearly 200 of them in 24 states at risk of closure. "We will keep fighting this cruel law so that everyone can get birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, and other critical health care, no matter their insurance," Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's president, said in a statement. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)
The Herald Scotland
29-07-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Trump's Medicaid cuts to Planned Parenthood blocked
That provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the Republican-led Congress denied certain tax-exempt organizations and their affiliates from receiving Medicaid funds if they continue to provide abortions. More: Donald Trump's megabill could mean closure for a third of Planned Parenthood clinics The U.S. Department of Justice argued that "the bill stops federal subsidies for Big Abortion" and urged Talwani not to let Planned Parenthood and its members "supplant duly enacted legislation with their own policy preferences." Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said the law's text and structure made clear that it was crafted to cover every member of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the parent organization, even if they were not named. That specificity likely transformed the provision at issue into an unconstitutional "bill of attainder," an act of Congress that wrongly seeks to inflict punishment without a trial, the judge said. More: Supreme Court sides with South Carolina in effort to cut Planned Parenthood funding "Plaintiffs are likely to establish that Congress singled them out with punitive intent," Talwani wrote. She said the law also violated Planned Parenthood members' equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment and burdened the right of some who do not provide abortions to associate with their parent organization in likely violation of the First Amendment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The judge last week had issued a partial injunction that only covered some Planned Parenthood members. Because an earlier temporary restraining order was expiring, Planned Parenthood said many health centers were forced to stop billing for Medicaid services ahead of Monday's ruling. Planned Parenthood has said the law would have "catastrophic" consequences for its nearly 600 health centers, putting nearly 200 of them in 24 states at risk of closure. "We will keep fighting this cruel law so that everyone can get birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, and other critical health care, no matter their insurance," Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's president, said in a statement.
CNN
28-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Judge widens block against federal funding ban on Planned Parenthood
A federal judge in Boston has widened her block on the Trump administration's ability to enforce a provision of President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy law that would defund Planned Parenthood's health care services. US District Judge Indira Talwani ruled last week that the administration couldn't enforce the funding ban against some Planned Parenthood organizations. In a new preliminary injunction issued Monday, the judge blocked enforcement of the law nationwide, saying it applied to the dozens of state and local Planned Parenthood member organizations. 'Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable. In particular, restricting Members' ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs,' Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in the 58-page ruling. The measure, part of Trump's domestic policy bill that was signed into law July 4, bars Medicaid users from coverage with a health care provider that also provides abortion services. The judge said that the plaintiffs in the case – the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, along with Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah – were likely to succeed on their claim that the law had singled out the health care provider for adverse treatment. 'The legislative history and context confirm that the law's purpose is to single out Planned Parenthood Federation and its Members for punishment,' Talwani wrote, going on to note that comments by individual lawmakers 'support the conclusion that Congress's intent was punitive.' While the legislation did not explicitly mention Planned Parenthood, it prohibits federal funding for providers 'primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care' that also provide abortion services.'
