A federal judge halts Trump’s Planned Parenthood funding cuts, igniting a nationwide debate.
Just weeks after the Trump administration rolled out a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to stop Medicaid dollars from flowing into the coffers of abortion giants earning more than $800,000 annually, a single federal judge has stepped in to say, “Not so fast.”
The move, designed to zero out funding for Planned Parenthood’s massive nationwide operation, has now been put on ice by a decision issued not in Washington, not in New York, but from a Boston courtroom.
Yes, Boston. Where a federal judge in a geographically limited district somehow now governs health policy for the entire United States.
Again.
The robe in question belongs to U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee who took it upon herself to rule that Trump’s policy “likely violated the Constitution” and would cause “irreparable harm” if allowed to proceed.
Translation: A federal judge in a deep blue state blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a policy that a Republican Congress passed and a Republican president signed, because feelings might get hurt.
According to Talwani’s ruling, a preliminary injunction halting enforcement nationwide, the law likely «. violates the United States Constitution by subjecting Planned Parenthood Federation and its Members to a bill of attainder, by retaliating against them in violation of the First Amendment, and by denying them equal protection of the law.»
Talwani emphasized that even though the provision didn’t explicitly name Planned Parenthood, its intent and effect were surgically precise. «The structure and legislative record make clear that the Defund Provision is aimed at a single entity,” she noted.
The order clarifies that no funds would be used for elective abortions, a nod to the still-standing Hyde Amendment. Still, it does state that stripping funding could lead to immediate fallout: closed clinics, reduced services, and lost access to birth control, STI testing, and cancer screenings for over a million low-income patients.
Now we’re told that withholding funding from an organization that receives private donations will devastate basic healthcare access across America.
