Attorney General Tong Secures Preliminary Injunction Blocking Trump Administration from Defunding Planned Parenthood and Other Health Centers

Press Releases

12/03/2025

Attorney General Tong Secures Preliminary Injunction Blocking Trump Administration from Defunding Planned Parenthood and Other Health Centers

(Hartford, CT) — Attorney General William Tong today announced 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.

“This order preserves access to vital, affordable healthcare for more than 1.1 million people nationwide. This order makes clear—the Defund Provision is unlawful, hurtful and states are on strong legal footing in our lawsuit. We’re going to keep fighting to keep partisan politics out of doctors’ offices and to ensure patients everywhere have access to essential healthcare,” said Attorney General Tong.

On July 29, Attorney General Tong co-led a coalition of 22 attorneys general and the state 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 a related lawsuit, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Kennedy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an unpublished order on September 11, 2025 granting the Trump Administration’s request to allow the Defund Provision to go into effect.

Assistant Attorneys General Alma Nunley, Special Counsel for Reproductive Rights and Janelle Medeiros, Special Counsel for Civil Rights are assisting the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

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