Judge Indefinitely Blocks Withholding of Medicaid Funds to Planned Parenthood
The New York Times, July 28, 2025
A federal judge on Monday indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a policy that would prevent many Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursements if they continue to offer abortion services. The order, issued by Judge Indira Talwani in Federal District Court in Massachusetts, extended a temporary block she had placed on the government earlier this month. She found that the policy retaliated against Planned Parenthood in violation of its First Amendment rights and could amount to an unconstitutional “legislative punishment.” The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, came in response to a provision introduced in the sprawling policy bill that President Trump signed into law early this month. The bill imposed a one-year ban on state Medicaid payments to any health care nonprofit that offers abortions and received more than $800,000 in Medicaid funding in 2023. Because almost no other nonprofits or national networks meet the $800,000 threshold set in the bill, Judge Talwani found it was “easily ascertainable” that the provision was targeted and intended to force Planned Parenthood’s hand. Federal law already prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for paying for abortions, and Judge Talwani previously found that the provision was designed to indirectly squeeze clinics into dropping such services, using Medicaid payments as leverage. In withholding funding from the independent clinics that make up the organization’s network, Judge Talwani wrote that the provision effectively held the potential to minimize the organization’s footprint across the country. In many states, it could force clinics to vastly reduce services or close. She added that the disruption of the many other health services provided by Planned Parenthood affiliates, including family planning and tests for sexually transmitted infections, generally justified barring the policy from taking effect. The Trump administration last week filed an appeal of the restraining order Judge Talwani issued earlier this month. But pending any action from the court of appeals, the injunction she granted on Monday will stay in effect for the time being.
Texas Sues New York Official for Refusing To Take Action Against Abortion Provider
The Guardian, July 29, 2025
Texas has sued a New York official for refusing to take action against an abortion provider, teeing up a state-versus-state battle that is widely expected to end up before the US supreme court. Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general, has petitioned the New York state supreme court to order a county clerk to enforce a fine against Dr Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor accused of mailing abortion pills across state lines. Paxton accused Carpenter last year of mailing abortion pills to a Texas woman in defiance of Texas’s ban on virtually all abortions. After Carpenter failed to show up in a Texas court, a judge ordered her to pay more than $100,000 in penalties. But the acting Ulster county clerk, Taylor Bruck, in New York has twice rejected Paxton’s efforts to levy that fine. Under New York’s “shield law”, state law enforcement officials are blocked from complying with out-of-state prosecutions against abortion providers who ship pills to patients, even if those patients are located outside New York state. Paxton’s petition marks the latest escalation in the burgeoning clash between states that protect abortion rights and those that do not. In the three years since the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents in red states have repeatedly tried to push for legislation and litigation that would curtail people’s ability to cross state lines for abortions or to receive abortion pills in the mail. Meanwhile, blue states, including New York, have enacted an array of shield laws to preserve people’s abortion access.
How U.S. Adults Feel About Legal Abortion Three Years After Roe Was Overturned, According to AP-NORC Poll
Associated Press, July 24, 2025
Three years after the Supreme Court opened the door to state abortion bans, most U.S. adults say abortion should be legal – views that look similar to before the landmark ruling. The new findings from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll show that about two-thirds of U.S. adults think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. About half believe abortion should be available in their state if someone does not want to be pregnant for any reason. That level of support for abortion is down slightly from what an AP-NORC poll showed last year, when it seemed that support for legal abortion might be rising. Last year, an AP-NORC poll conducted in June found that 7 in 10 U.S. adults said it should be available in all or most cases, up slightly from 65% in May 2022, just before the decision that overruled the constitutional right to abortion, and 57% in June 2021. The new poll is closer to Americans’ views before the Supreme Court ruled. Now, 64% of adults support legal abortion in most or all cases. More than half the adults in states with the most stringent bans are in that group. Similarly, about half now say abortion should be available in their state when someone doesn’t want to continue their pregnancy for any reason – about the same as in June 2021 but down from about 6 in 10 who said that in 2024. Adults in the strictest states are just as likely as others to say abortion should be available in their state to women who want to end pregnancies for any reason. Democrats support abortion access far more than Republicans do. Support for legal abortion has dropped slightly among members of both parties since June 2024, but nearly 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 4 in 10 Republicans say abortion should be legal in at least most instances.
Republican States Press Congress To Ban Abortion Shield Laws
The Hill, July 30, 2025
More than a dozen Republican-led states are urging Congress to ban abortion shield laws, pieces of legislation passed in states where abortion is legal that protect abortion providers from liability for violating anti-abortion laws in other states. A total of 15 GOP attorneys general signed and sent a letter to congressional leadership this week requesting federal action be taken to preempt abortion shield laws, arguing they interfere with states’ ability to enforce criminal laws. The attorneys general also argue in their letter that the laws conflict with the Constitution’s “full faith and credit clause” as well as its Extradition Clause. “Congress should consider stepping in to remedy this problem,” their letter reads. “Instead of allowing pro-abortion States to disrespect the decisions of other States regarding abortion and trample the Constitution, Congress should assess whether it should tackle this issue head on with legislation that preempts state shield laws.” Signees include Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R), both of whom have taken legal action against a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing and mailing abortion pills to women in their respective states.
Trump Prepares To Revoke Lifesaving Abortion Care for Veterans
The Intercept, July 29, 2025
President Donald Trump appears poised to institute an abortion ban for hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs – escalating his war on reproductive health care by revoking veterans’ access to abortion. The Office of Management and Budget concluded its review last week of a Veterans Affairs rule titled Reproductive Health Services, clearing the way to implement it at the VA. Experts believe the rule is a reversal of a Biden-era policy of the same name which ended the agency’s ban on abortion counseling for veterans and allowed for VA providers to offer abortion services in limited circumstances, such as rape, incest, or endangerment of a pregnant person’s life or health. If the policy is overturned, hundreds of thousands of veterans in states with abortion bans could lose access to abortion care and counseling. The new rule has not yet been published, and until it is, experts can’t be certain what exactly is in it. Over half of all women veterans of reproductive age in the U.S. live in states where abortion is banned or likely to be banned, according to analysis from the National Partnership for Women & Families. “So that’s 345,000 women veterans that live in states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion,” said Jaclyn Dean, director of congressional relations, reproductive health, at the National Partnership for Women & Families. “For many of the women veterans living in any of those 12 states with total abortion bans, the VA is the only place that they can get abortion care. So you can expect those people to lose abortion care in cases of rape, incest, in the life and health of the pregnant person.”
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