Planned Parenthood drops lawsuit against Trump administration’s Medicaid cuts

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Planned Parenthood has moved to drop its legal challenge against the Trump administration for cutting off Medicaid funding to its abortion providers across the U.S.

Since July, Planned Parenthood’s attorneys have been fighting to block part of President Donald Trump’s tax bill that they argued unfairly targeted their clinics and would leave vulnerable patients with even fewer health care options.

However, in December, a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration could continue to withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and other health centers. Meanwhile, a separate lawsuit filed by a coalition of mostly Democratic states also challenging the cuts, was given a similar blow in January — though that legal challenge remains ongoing.

A third lawsuit, also over the funding cuts, filed in Maine by a network of medical clinics that was also impacted by the Trump tax bill, was voluntarily dismissed in October.

Planned Parenthood moved to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit late Friday. An email seeking comment from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was the named plaintiff in the lawsuit, was sent Monday.

“The goal of this lawsuit has always been to help Planned Parenthood patients get the care they deserve from their trusted provider. Based on the 1st Circuit’s decision, it is clear that this lawsuit is no longer the best way to accomplish that goal,” the organization said in a statement.

Under the tax provision in Trump’s tax bill, Medicaid payments would be ended if providers like Planned Parenthood primarily offered family planning services — things like contraception, abortion and pregnancy tests — and received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023.

Planned Parenthood was not specifically named in the statute, but the organization’s leaders have said it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states.

Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. While federal law bans taxpayer money from covering most abortions, many conservatives have long argued that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood used Medicaid money for other health services to subsidize abortion.

Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

According to Planned Parenthood, 23 of their health clinics have been forced to close as a result of Trump’s tax bill, which went into effect on July 4. More than 50 clinics closed in 18 states last year, with the majority of those located in the Midwest.

“President Trump and his allies in Congress have weaponized the federal government to target Planned Parenthood at the expense of patients — stripping people of the care they rely on,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement. “Through every attack, Planned Parenthood has never lost sight of its focus: ensuring patients can get the care they need from the provider they trust. That will never change.”