Maine clinics denied Medicaid funds during lawsuit after Trump cuts to abortion providers [View all]

Source: The Independent

Monday 25 August 2025 19:40 BST


A network of clinics in Maine will not resume getting Medicaid funds to treat thousands of low-income patients during its lawsuit over Trump administration cuts to abortion providers, a judge ruled Monday.

President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big beautiful bill,” blocked Medicaid money from flowing to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The parameters in the bill also stopped funding from reaching Maine Family Planning, a much smaller provider that offers health care services in one of the poorest and most rural states in the Northeast.

Maine Family Planning says Medicaid dollars are not used for its abortion services, which are a relatively small percentage of the overall services provided. It’s unfair to cut off funding for the clinics “solely because Congress wanted to defund Planned Parenthood,” an attorney for Maine Family Planning told the judge earlier this month.

But in his ruling Monday, Judge Lance Walker said the payments will not resume during the ongoing lawsuit by the provider seeking to restore the funds.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/planned-parenthood-medicaid-donald-trump-maine-portland-b2813756.html