A federal judge in Maine declined on Monday to block the government from stripping Medicaid funding from one of Maine’s largest abortion providers, finding that to do so would override “the will of the people as expressed by Congress.”
At issue is a provision of the tax and spending bill Congress passed in July that would deny abortion providers Medicaid funding even for health services other than performing abortions.
In a blunt, 19-page opinion, Judge Lance E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Maine wrote that particularly after the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, he could neither consider abortion services a constitutional right nor stop Congress from advancing laws to defund organizations that provide them.
“It would be a special kind of judicial hubris to declare that the public interest has been undermined by the public,” wrote Judge Walker, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term.
“A cold calculus, I acknowledge, but Congress is entitled to withhold federal funds and otherwise disassociate from conduct that is not enshrined as a constitutional right, including through incremental measures, and notwithstanding resulting harm to some beneficiaries of its broader Medicaid programming,” he added.
The decision was a setback in a national effort by nonprofit health organizations to stop the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers from pulling their federal funding. The lawsuit, brought by the Family Planning Association of Maine, which operates 18 family planning clinics in the state, came after Republicans moved to cut off the flow of Medicaid dollars to major abortion providers through legislation this summer.
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The post Judge Allows Blocking of Funds to Maine Abortion Providers appeared first on New York Times.
