The tug-of-war over federal funding for Planned Parenthood entered another round this week, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-leading a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing a motion for a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration.
At issue is the “Defund Provision” tucked into the federal budget package known as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which bars Planned Parenthood and other nonprofit clinics that provide abortion services from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. For California, that means 109 Planned Parenthood health centers — including six on the Central Coast — are currently locked out of reimbursement for services provided to Medi-Cal patients. Clinics are still seeing patients, but they’re not being paid for services delivered to Medi-Cal enrollees.
“This is an all-out assault,” Bonta said Tuesday, announcing the motion for a preliminary injunction over the Defund Provision. “The stakes have never been higher. These centers provide critical healthcare services for low-income patients across the country — our states, and the health of our people, will suffer immensely if the Defund Provision is allowed to remain in effect.”