Planned Parenthood has thrown in the towel on its efforts to preserve its primary federal funding, voluntarily dismissing its lawsuit against the defunding provision of the Trump administration’s signature legislation.
Last July, President Donald Trump signed into law his controversial “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB), a wide-ranging policy package that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to any that provides abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life.
That and other cuts have significantly impacted the bottom line of Planned Parenthood, which is currently in court to try to stop the federal government from cutting it off. According to Operation Rescue, 54 abortion facilities shut their doors in 2024, 36 of which were Planned Parenthood locations.
Planned Parenthood sued, alleging that even though it was not specifically named in the BBB, it was effectively the only organization that qualified under the bill’s language and that losing that money would cause “devastating” layoffs and location closures. For several months, the defunding provision repeatedly cycled between temporary injunctions by District Judge Indira Talwani and reversal by other judges, with the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversing her yet again last month.
On January 30, Planned Parenthood filed a dismissal in the case, later explaining that 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.”