A federal judge in Portland has ruled against requiring the federal government to temporarily allow Planned Parenthood affiliates to receive Medicaid funding as challenges to a policy approved in the Big Beautiful Bill play out in court.
In a 19-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker explained that the plaintiffs in this case failed to convincingly argue that their constitutional rights had been violated “due to several severe jurisprudential headwinds that I am bound to observe.”
Judge Walker went on to suggest that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health eliminated “the thermal lift that used to be available to Plaintiff and other abortion providers when abortion was considered a constitutional right.”
Being challenged in this case is a clause in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that blocks Medicaid reimbursements for services performed at facilities deemed ineligible due to their association with Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s most prominent abortion providers.
Maine Family Planning, the plaintiff in this case, is associated with Planned Parenthood and has been deemed ineligible to receive Medicaid funds under this provision.
In this lawsuit, Maine Family Planning argues that the Big Beautiful Bill “deprives [them] of equal protection of the laws in connection with its participation as a provider in the State of Maine’s Medicaid program.”
According to court filings, about half of the patients served by Maine Family Planning are Medicaid recipients.
Figures provided to the court by the plaintiff suggest that in 2024, 7.38 percent of patients serviced at Maine Family Planning clinics received abortions. Procedural abortions are made available at one clinic, while medication abortions are offered at all 18 locations.
Other services provided by Maine Family Planning include testing for sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer screenings, gynecological exams, and access to contraception. Three clinics also provide patients with primary care services.
Just less than a quarter of Maine Family Planning’s annual revenue comes from Medicaid and about 62 percent of that funding comes from the federal government.
“For present purposes, the question is whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment overrides the congressional will concerning the defunding of certain abortion providers,” Walker explained.
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Walker went on to argue that the courts do not serve as an “omnibus super-legislature” with the power to determine what is and is not good public policy.
“Undoubtedly, most of the public that is outraged by Congress’s defunding of ‘prohibited entities; will feel as they do because they find the provision unwise, unfair, and illogical,” he said. “In fact, much of Plaintiff’s argument turns on a public policy critique of the prohibited entities portion of the BBB.”
“However unwise is the prohibition of Medicaid funding to providers best positioned to deliver Medicaid services to underserved rural populations, the Judicial Branch, despite much generated confusion on this basic point, does not serve as an omnibus super-legislature to sit in final judgment as to which policy outcomes it prefers,” Walker wrote. “That judgment rests with the people.”
Click Here to Read Judge Walker’s Full Ruling
“This ruling is a devastating setback for Mainers who depend on us for basic primary care,” said George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning, according to Maine Morning Star.
“The loss of Medicaid funds — which nearly half our patients rely on — threatens our ability to provide life-saving services to communities across the state,” he said. “Mainers’ health should never be jeopardized by political decisions, and we will continue to fight for them.”
Maine Family Planning has not publicly stated whether or not they intend to appeal Walker’s denial of a temporary injunction.
This decision comes shortly after another federal judge presiding over a similar nationwide case granted plaintiffs’ request to temporarily block the federal government from enforcing this policy against a handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey was among the twenty-one Democrat state attorneys general to sign onto the suit against members of the Trump Administration.
Unlike Walker, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Boston granted the injunction because she is inclined to believe that preventing clinics associated with Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding represents a violation of their First Amendment rights and denies them equal protection under the law.
Judge Talwani argues that the bill was not “precisely tailored” toward preventing taxpayer funds from going toward abortions because the defendants do not dispute that “virtually all abortion providers who participate in Medicaid — other than Planned Parenthood Members — unaffected.”
