A coalition of 21 Democrat attorneys general urged a federal appeals court this week to uphold an injunction blocking the law President Trump signed to defund Planned Parenthood.
They argue in a legal filing that the move would devastate access to health services for over a million low-income patients even though killing babies has nothing to do with legitimate health care.
The amicus brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, supports Planned Parenthood’s ongoing lawsuit challenging a provision in the Trump-era “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a sweeping budget reconciliation law that sought to bar federal Medicaid funds from flowing to any entity providing abortions, including Planned Parenthood clinics.
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The coalition, led by pro-abortion Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and including counterparts from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, contends the rule violates the First Amendment and equal protection guarantees by singling out Planned Parenthood for its abortion business. A lower court in Massachusetts granted a preliminary injunction in July, finding Planned Parenthood likely to succeed on those claims, and the attorneys general’s brief seeks to keep that block in place pending full litigation.
The appeals court eventually allowed the defunding to take place.
Pro-life groups, however, blasted the filing as an overreach that compels ordinary Americans to bankroll an organization at the epicenter of a multimillion-dollar abortion industry. During fiscal year 2023-2024, Planned Parenthood reported killing well over 425,000 babies abortions nationwide. The Defund Provision, they argue, simply enforces fiscal accountability by redirecting Medicaid dollars away from the abortion giant, preserving funds for genuine maternal and child health needs without endorsing the termination of unborn lives.
