Officials at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers are breathing a sigh of relief, for now, after a federal judge on Monday blocked a ban on Medicaid funding to clinics that provide abortions.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts this week put an indefinite hold on enforcing the ban, which was included in the recently passed congressional spending bill.
The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” included a one-year prohibition on Medicaid reimbursements to medical providers that perform abortions and receive more than $800,000 from the state-federal insurance program for low-income and disabled people.
“I think that we should celebrate this injunction, but we should continue to be vigilant,” said Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Chief Medical Officer Margaret Baum.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, an affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, operates clinics in Missouri and in the Metro East.
A spokeswoman for the affiliate said it’s unclear if the federal ban would directly affect the organization, since Missouri has in recent years barred the state’s Medicaid from reimbursing abortion providers. That makes it possible that the organization would not hit the $800,000 reimbursement threshold.
However, Baum said even if the organization ends up excluded from the ban on reimbursements, its clinics would still feel the pressure.
“Even if we are not directly affected by losing dollars, we will see an influx of patients from places that cannot sustain the care and stay open,” she said.
“What that will do is put pressure on those affiliates and those clinics that are still available, still able to provide abortion services. Because as we know, the patients have to go somewhere, right?”
The Metro East in particular experienced a swell of patients after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and states quickly enacted bans on abortions.
Baum did not say how much the organization receives from Medicaid reimbursements. Great Rivers’ 2023 annual report, the latest available online, states that around 20% of its patients are insured through the Medicaid program.
U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat who represents the Metro East, visited Planned Parenthood’s Fairview Heights clinic earlier this week.
“We've made it a welcoming state for women to make their own decisions about their own body,” she said. “I think that with this administration, with House Republicans and Senate Republicans, they feel emboldened to try things like this big, ugly bill – which are backdoor bans – to get at the legislation that made our state a safe haven.”
The judge said in her decision that the policy was retaliatory and singled out Planned Parenthood.
Medicaid is funded through a mix of state- and federal-level contributions. Planned Parenthood’s parent organization has stated the ban on Medicaid reimbursements could lead to 200 clinics in 24 states closing.
Since the 1970s, a law called the Hyde Amendment has prohibited using federal funds, including Medicaid reimbursements, to pay for abortions, with limited exceptions in cases of rape, incest and life-threatening conditions of the mother.
The new congressional ban would instead affect reimbursements for checkups, counseling and other services the medical providers offer.
“This is about women being able to get breast cancer screening. This is about sexually transmitted disease screening,” Budzinski said.
The federal fight mirrors disputes between Missouri’s Planned Parenthood affiliates and Republican state lawmakers.
Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri have gone without reimbursement from the state’s Medicaid Program, MO HealthNet, since 2022 as legal challenges to state-level laws that prohibit Medicaid payments to the clinics make their way through courts.
The latest law banning reimbursement went into effect last summer. The health organization is fighting the law in the state’s Administrative Hearing Commission, which resolves disputes between state agencies and other parties.
The state’s Supreme Court has overturned similar laws from Missouri legislators included in the state’s budget bills.
In contrast, the latest Missouri ban on reimbursements was put in place with a standalone bill.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers announced this month it will lay off workers starting Aug. 1 as a result of cuts to Medicaid included in the congressional spending bill.
