The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a preliminary injunction that had been placed on a provision revoking Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, Newsmax reported. The rule was part of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law in July.
The Boston-based federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in favor of the administration's petition to halt the injunction imposed by a lower court. Pro-life groups, including Live Action, cheered the decision to allow the provision to stand to turn off the federal money spigot for the abortion giant.
"BREAKING: Planned Parenthood has been DEFUNDED—again. The First Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted the injunction that has been preventing HHS from cutting Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. Taxpayer dollars should never bankroll the nation’s largest abortion chain," Live Action, a pro-life nonprofit, posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
BREAKING
Planned Parenthood has been DEFUNDED—again.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted the injunction that has been preventing HHS from cutting Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood.
Taxpayer dollars should never bankroll the nation’s largest abortion chain. pic.twitter.com/EQjCtNoPjO
— Live Action (@LiveAction) September 11, 2025
Whenever Republicans seek to pull funding for the slaughter of the unborn, Planned Parenthood and its ilk constantly decry it as a move that will cause harm. This time was no different when the nation's largest abortion provider sued over the provision, claiming "catastrophic" consequences for its clinics, with as many as one-third of them across 24 states in danger of being closed.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sided with Planned Parenthood on the basis that the funding ban violated the First Amendment rights of the abortion giant. The judge also said that the provision was out of bounds as it was acting as a "bill of attainder."
This means Talwani, an Obama-appointed judge, interpreted the law as a punitive measure imposed against the organization without due process and is thus rendered it unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has only successfully invoked that clause five times to strike down legislation passed by Congress, but Talwani used it to dispute the ban anyway.
The Trump administration argued that this was erroneous before the three-judge panel at the appeals court and prevailed. "Halting federal subsidies bears no resemblance to the punishments - including death, banishment, and imprisonment - previously understood as implicating the Clause," the Department of Justice asserted.
Notably, the three judges who sided with the Trump administration were appointed by then-President Joe Biden. While the fight over this particular provision appears to be going Trump's way, there has been a persistent issue with courts attempting to thwart Trump's agenda by using lower courts to impose nationwide injunctions.
Trump has attempted to put through much of his promised agenda through executive orders and the legislative process. Since Democrats couldn't beat him in the arena of ideas during the election, they have instead resorted to finding friendly courts to challenge the Trump agenda, and they have been successful in many cases.
As Fox News reported, nationwide injunctions are issued by lower courts to prevent the federal court from proceeding with certain laws or actions. The news outlet noted that almost "all the universal injunctions blocking President Donald Trump's agenda were issued by just five of the nation's 94 federal district courts, a statistic that the administration said lays bare the Left's strategy of lawfare."
In June, the Trump administration took the issue all the way up to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled 6-3 in favor of the administration's argument and said that lower courts could not issue nationwide injunctions. The president and Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated that decision.
"Active liberal… judges have used these injunctions to block virtually all of President Trump's policies. No longer. No longer," Bondi said at the time. It now seems that the lawfare the left is launching simply isn't working anymore, even when it comes to the fight over abortion funding.
Trump notched another win for his agenda and the people who voted for him with this appeal. Abortion is a horrible practice that should be completely illegal, but stopping taxpayer dollars from funding abortion mills to snuff out the lives of the unborn is at least a good start.