Appeals Court Lets Trump Defund Planned Parenthood

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that a provision of U.S. President Donald Trump's signature tax and domestic policy bill that deprives Planned Parenthood and local affiliates that perform abortions of Medicaid funding is not an unconstitutional punishment.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned, opens new tab a preliminary injunction issued in July by a lower-court judge who had concluded that the law likely violated the U.S. Constitution by targeting Planned Parenthood's health centers as punishment for providing abortions.

Planned Parenthood says at least 20 health centers have closed since Trump signed the measure into law in July. The appeals court allowed it to take effect in September while it considered the administration's appeal of U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's injunction.

A bill of attainder is a legislative act prohibited by the Constitution that seeks to inflict punishment on a person or group without a trial.
But U.S. Circuit Judge Gustavo Gelpi, writing for a panel of three judges appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the law "simply does not impose 'punishment' as the term has been historically understood."

"It instead uses Congress' taxing and spending power to put appellees to a difficult choice: give up federal Medicaid funds and continue to provide abortion services or continue receiving such funds by abandoning the provision of abortion services," Gelpi said.

But the 1st Circuit overturned that holding, narrowly construing the law to cover only affiliates to the extent they operate under common corporate control with prohibited entities.