Key Takeaways:
- Taxpayer Dollars Protected—for Planned Parenthood: Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction blocking Congress’s defunding measure, forcing Medicaid to continue reimbursing the abortion giant.
- Planned Parenthood’s Business Booms: The organization performed 402,230 abortions in 2023-24 and received $792.2 million in taxpayer funding, nearly $100 million more than the previous year.
- Legal Battle Far from Over: The case could eventually reach the Supreme Court, which recently upheld South Carolina’s right to block Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding.
A federal judge has stepped in to protect Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer pipeline—at least for now.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, blocked a key provision of the Big, Beautiful Bill that defunded Planned Parenthood of Medicaid dollars, granting the abortion giant a preliminary injunction. Her expanded order forces continued Medicaid reimbursements to all Planned Parenthood clinics while the lawsuit proceeds.
Talwani claimed that blocking Medicaid funds would “threaten an increase in unintended pregnancies” and “undiagnosed and untreated STIs,” arguing that patients would suffer “adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable.”
The Biden-aligned position is clear: Planned Parenthood must keep its government gravy train—even though the Hyde Amendment already prohibits federal funding of elective abortions. Talwani emphasized her ruling wasn’t ordering the government to fund abortions directly but simply blocked Congress from excluding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid.
Planned Parenthood argued in court that losing Medicaid funds would have “devastating effects,” claiming nearly 200 clinics could close. HHS countered that Planned Parenthood “has no right to taxpayer money” and Congress has the authority to determine where public funds go.
The timing is striking. Planned Parenthood’s own annual report shows record-high abortions—402,230 in 2023-24—and a surge in taxpayer funding to $792.2 million, nearly $100 million more than the prior year.
Pro-life advocates argue that no taxpayer should be forced to indirectly support an industry ending hundreds of thousands of lives annually. Congress used the reconciliation process to bypass a Senate filibuster, reflecting growing public sentiment against subsidizing abortion providers.
While Talwani’s ruling is temporary, it’s another example of activist judges overriding the will of Congress and the voters who sent pro-life majorities to Washington.
The case—Planned Parenthood Federation of America v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—could eventually reach the Supreme Court, which just last month upheld South Carolina’s right to cut off Medicaid funds to the organization.
For now, taxpayers are still footing the bill for the nation’s largest abortion business—proof that the fight over who controls America’s purse strings is far from over.