Afederal judge in Boston issued a temporary restraining order against a provision in President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill” that would affect Planned Parenthood.
Why It Matters
Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration, challenging a provision in the Republican president’s broad domestic policy legislation that would block its health centers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements.
What To Know
On Monday, Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, granted Planned Parenthood’s request to temporarily pause the Medicaid cuts to the group’s health centers as part of the Republican Party’s new tax and spending package.
Among other things, the bill bans state Medicaid payments to healthcare nonprofits that also offer abortions and got more than $800,000 in federal funding in 2023. Trump signed the bill into law on Friday evening.
According to The Hill, the ruling spans two weeks and Talwani will later issue a ruling about whether to impose a longer injunction.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act aims to deliver on Trump’s biggest legislative priorities, including making permanent tax cuts that disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans and increasing funding for immigration enforcement.
The tax cuts and immigration initiatives are being paid for largely by deep spending reductions to Medicaid and food assistance programs, which critics say will harm working-class, low-income and elderly Americans, especially those in red states.
The Trump-led bill, which includes steep cuts to Medicaid, was shepherded through last week. It passed by a vote of 218-214, with every Democrat and two Republicans voting against it.
What People Are Saying
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who gave a record-breaking 8-hour and 44-minute speech delaying Thursday’s vote, said: “Republicans are trying to jam this one, big, ugly bill down the throats of the American people … Leadership requires courage, conviction, compassion—and yet what we have seen from this administration and co-conspirators on the Republican side of the aisle is cruelty, chaos and corruption.”
Jeffries added that that the bill was “an extraordinary assault on the health care of the American people.”
Democratic Representative Josh Riley of New York said of the bill on Wednesday: “This bill will kill good, blue-collar manufacturing jobs that we need to rebuild the economy in this country. It closes rural hospitals. It defunds health care. All to give trillions of dollars in tax cuts to your cronies. Don’t tell me you give a s*** about the middle class when all you are doing is s******* on the middle class.”
