Josh Shapiro sues Trump administration over Planned Parenthood cuts
The lawsuit argues that Trump’s spending plan defunds Planned Parenthood ‘in retribution’ for abortion advocacy.
Gov. Josh Shapiro is suing the Trump administration, alongside 22 other states, over a policy that would block Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Medicaid funding.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, argues that a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — the Republicans’ sprawling spending and tax bill passed earlier this month — excludes Planned Parenthood health centers from federal funding “in retribution” for the organization’s abortion advocacy.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” prevents healthcare nonprofits that offer abortion and received more than $800,000 in Medicaid funding in 2023 from continuing to bill Medicaid.
“This unconstitutional decision threatens to close vital healthcare centers and deny Pennsylvanians essential, lifesaving care such as cancer screening and prevention, family planning services, and prenatal and postpartum care,” Shapiro wrote in a statement on X.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of challenges brought by Shapiro against the Trump administration over federal funding cuts. It comes a day after a federal judge indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from withholding Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood, extending a temporary injunction won earlier this month.
In addition to abortion services, Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of reproductive and sexual healthcare, including testing for sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, and cancer screenings.
Federal funding cuts have put Planned Parenthood in dire financial straits. The organization’s Southeastern Pennsylvania affiliate sees around 33,245 patients annually, a third of which are on Medicaid. Without Medicaid reimbursements, it would lose an estimated $3,136,000 annually, according to a fact sheet provided by the organization.
And earlier this year, the Trump administration’s decision to freeze Title X funds — grants that cover family planning and other sexual health services for people who are under- or uninsured — cost Philadelphia’s two busiest Planned Parenthood centers a total of around $332,000, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania president and CEO Dayle Steinberg said in an interview in June.
“They are targeting our patients and their right to have access to basic healthcare,” Steinberg said in an interview on Friday. “Not all other providers accept Medicaid, and Planned Parenthood does.”
“We are a safety net provider,” she added.
Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country have been forced to shutter clinics in recent months due to lost funding, rising healthcare costs, and low reimbursement rates from insurers. For instance, in Michigan, four centers closed their doors this April, citing ongoing financial challenges and lost Title X funding. Planned Parenthood Association of Utah also closed two centers in May, due to “attacks on healthcare funding by the Trump administration.”
The “One Big Beautiful Bill’s” restriction on Medicaid funds puts nearly 200 Planned Parenthood centers at risk of closure, the organization said in a news release earlier this month.
At Planned Parenthood’s Southeastern Pennsylvania centers, the uncertainty surrounding Medicaid funds has led to confusion for patients and financial strain for clinics, Steinberg said. Until Monday’s court ruling, the organization’s health centers were seeing Medicaid patients free of charge.
“It’s always some attempt to take control over our funds, to punish us and the communities that we serve all because we do abortions,” she said. “That’s why we want to reassure them that they can still come to us and we’ll provide care.”