An Ohio affiliate of Planned Parenthood said it will not accept Medicaid insurance because of uncertainty around a judge’s ruling ordering the Trump administration to continue sending Medicaid reimbursements to all Planned Parenthood health centers.
The operator of four clinics said it was concerned the administration could try to claw those payments back if the ruling is overturned. A second group of a dozen health centers is not offering long-acting contraceptive devices for Medicaid patients for similar reasons.
The moves come after US district judge Indira Talwani blocked a provision of the sweeping tax bill that “defunds” abortion providers for one year if they received more than $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023. (The payments would be for non-abortion services like birth control and STI testing, as federal law already prohibits the program from covering abortions outside a few exceptions.)
The order prevents the administration from enforcing the law against Planned Parenthood; an independent provider in Maine filed a separate suit and a hearing is scheduled for next week.
The Trump administration filed notice on Tuesday that it would appeal the ruling to the first circuit court of appeals; the case will almost certainly make it to the US supreme court. Roughly a dozen Planned Parenthood clinics have announced closures since the bill was signed into law, with the latest including the organization’s only two health centers in Louisiana.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast said its New Orleans and Baton Rouge clinics would close on 30 September.
Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio (PPSWO), one of two affiliates in the state, said in a statement that, while it was “relieved” to see Talwani’s order, it would not resume accepting Medicaid, though it was seeing Medicaid patients who self-pay.
“Unfortunately for many smaller affiliates, the risk of the federal government requesting back pay if the injunction expires is still too great,” a spokesperson said, citing legal filings in which the Trump justice department said it would seek to “claw back” payments if it ultimately wins the case.
“We’re trying to mitigate that risk to preserve our capacity to offer the other critical services south-west Ohioans and hundreds of patients from the south come to us for,” a PPSWO spokesperson added, mentioning abortion and gender-affirming care.
PPSWO closed two health centers at the end of July, leaving it with four clinics. The spokesperson said…
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