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BALTIMORE, MD — Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced securing a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts blocking the Trump administration from enforcing the “Defund Provision” within the recently enacted federal budget bill (“Big Beautiful Bill”). The Defund Provision excludes certain health centers, including Planned Parenthood health centers, from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursements. Among other things, these centers provide essential healthcare services to low-income patients, such as cancer screenings, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and birth control.
On July 29, Attorney General Brown joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general and the Governor of Pennsylvania in filing a lawsuit over the Defund Provision. On September 24, the coalition filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. In yesterday’s decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote that:
· The states are likely to succeed on the merits. The Court held that the Defund Provision fails to provide clear notice of the full scope of providers that qualify as “prohibited entities,” as required by the Spending Clause of the U.S Constitution. In addition, the Court held that the Defund Provision acts as an unlawful retroactive condition because it constitutes a change that the states could not have anticipated when joining Medicaid.
· The Defund Provision would result in irreparable harm to the states if allowed to stay in effect.
· The balance of equities and the public interest favor the states.
In filing the lawsuit, Attorney General Brown joined the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Josh Shapiro, in his official capacity as governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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