President Donald Trump’s fight to strip women and low-income individuals of their access to reproductive and family health care isn’t standing up well against the courts.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston ruled that the Trump administration must continue to reimburse all Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide for Medicaid funding.
“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order.
“In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”
This follows a preliminary injunction last week by Talwani declaring that only the clinics that didn’t perform abortions had to be reimbursed.
Of course, this has always been a tunnel-visioned battle of abortions for the GOP and not of overall medical health care access to those less financially fortunate.
Related | On the anniversary of Dobbs, the state of abortion is bad—real bad
As a part of Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” the president—while not specifically naming Planned Parenthood—instructed that institutions that perform abortions and receive over $800,000 from Medicaid funding in 2023 should be cut off for one year.
This attempt to shutter Planned Parenthood’s operations, the organization said in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, would have potentially closed over 200 clinics in 24 states.
Dominique Lee, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood’s Massachusetts League, was overjoyed by Talwani’s ruling Monday.
“At a time when reproductive health care access is under constant attack, this decision is a powerful reminder that patients, not politics, should guide health care,” she said in a statement.
“In Massachusetts and beyond, we will keep fighting to ensure everyone can turn to the provider they trust, no matter their insurance or ZIP code.”
Massachusetts and Utah Planned Parenthood Leagues filed the lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year in collaboration with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
While Trump and his minions battle it out with Planned Parenthood—and access to Medicaid in general—their creepy message to push women to have more children is alive and well.
Then again, having children might be a lot harder for the mothers who have historically relied on Medicaid to deliver those bundles of joy.
According to the CDC, 41% of births in 2021 used Medicaid as their payment source.
However, the administration’s tax bill—which many Republicans admitted to not even reading—is projected to kick millions of Americans off the program.
In other words, Trump and his ghouls want you to have your cake, eat it, and pay tens of thousands of dollars for it, too.