In his ruling, Judge Lance Walker wrote that he would not thwart Republican lawmakers’ bid to pull Medicaid funds from organizations that perform abortions.
By Catholics for Catholics
A federal judge in Maine refused to block the government from denying Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, saying it would supersede “the will of the people as expressed by Congress.”
“Were I to enjoin [the Trump administration] against obeying Congress’ funding instructions, I cannot say that I would be acting on any other basis than a difference of opinion as to ’the wisdom, fairness, or logic or legislative choices,’” U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said in a ruling on Aug. 25, according to The Epoch Times.
Walker’s ruling came after another federal judge’s decision to obstruct Congress’s defunding of abortion providers. In both cases, the providers contended that the legislation encroached upon the organizations’ right to due process under the Fifth Amendment and that lawmakers were illicitly pursuing certain providers.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump, focuses on organizations based on several standards, including if they obtained over $800,000 in Medicaid funding in fiscal year 2023 and delivered abortions other than in cases of rape, incest, or a danger to the mother’s life. Federal law prohibits the use of federal funds on abortions other than for those three exceptions.
In a 19-page opinion, Walker wrote that mainly after the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, he could not deem abortion services a constitutional right or deter Congress from forward-moving laws to defund organizations that offer them.
“It would be a special kind of judicial hubris to declare that the public interest has been undermined by the public,” wrote Walker.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s criteria swept in Planned Parenthood, which was able to secure a temporary block in its lawsuit against the Trump administration in Massachusetts, according to The Times. But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said that Planned Parenthood was likely to succeed in its claim that the legislation violated the equal protection aspect of the Fifth Amendment. Separately, a group of attorneys general has sued to stop the bill.
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