A major development in the long-running battle over taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood dropped Thursday — and it didn’t go the abortion giant’s way.
A three-judge panel on the First Circuit Court of Appeals, all of them Biden appointees, granted the federal government’s request to stay two lower-court injunctions that had forced Medicaid dollars to continue flowing to Planned Parenthood while litigation played out.
The decision means that, at least for now, the one-year defunding measure passed by congressional Republicans in the summer’s sweeping “Big, Beautiful Bill” can move forward.
Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, had issued the injunctions in July, siding with Planned Parenthood’s claim that the provision unfairly targeted them and would disrupt access to contraceptives and STI treatments for patients. Talwani’s orders essentially mandated continued taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, even though Congress had explicitly chosen to cut it off.
The First Circuit disagreed. Judges Gustavo Gelpí, Lara Montecalvo, and Seth Aframe wrote that the government had met the burden to secure a stay, keeping the defunding measure in effect while appeals move forward.
This is a substantial win for pro-life advocates and a significant setback for Planned Parenthood, which claimed in its lawsuit that nearly 200 of its clinics could face closure without taxpayer subsidies. Pro-life leaders noted the irony: the organization’s most recent annual report showed record numbers of abortions — over 402,000 in 2023–2024, the highest in its history — alongside a spike in taxpayer funding to $792 million.
The Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group hailed the ruling, blasting Planned Parenthood’s attempt to litigate its way back into public funding. “The American people, through Congress, spoke clearly with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Taxpayers should not be forced to spend a dime funding a brutal industry that ends at least 1.1 million lives a year,” said SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
The Biden-appointed panel’s ruling is notable for another reason: it underscores the Supreme Court’s direction in similar cases. Just this past June, the high court upheld South Carolina’s right to block Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding, ruling that the group could not sue under civil rights statutes to compel access.
Planned Parenthood’s litigation strategy has long rested on judicial activism and sympathetic courts, but the tide appears to be shifting. The appeals court ruling doesn’t resolve the case outright, but it does send a strong signal: there is no constitutional right to taxpayer money.
