Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings this week joined a coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia in suing the Trump Administration over the sweeping budget reconciliation law (“Big Beautiful Bill”), specifically the “Defund Provision,” signed by President Donald Trump this month. This provision, which targets Planned Parenthood, is a direct attack on the healthcare access of millions of low-income Americans, disproportionately affecting women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and communities of color. This provision specifically blocks Medicaid reimbursements for essential healthcare services, such as cancer screenings, birth control, and STI testing, at Planned Parenthood health centers.

“With this provision targeting women’s healthcare, the Trump Administration continues to treat the Constitution as a mere suggestion,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “The costs of this lawless provision would be devastating should it be allowed to go into effect. That’s why we’re going to fight it every step of the way.”

The “Big Beautiful Bill” is a sweeping Republican-led law signed by the President last month. Among its many provisions, one of the most detrimental sections is a clause that blocks federal Medicaid funding for essential medical services such as cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing, and wellness exams provided at Planned Parenthood health centers.

Defunding Planned Parenthood threatens at least 200 health centers nationwide, affecting healthcare for more than 1.1 million people, many of whom are unlikely to be able to receive care elsewhere. Despite claims by Republican lawmakers that other healthcare centers can absorb these patients, recent findings from the Guttmacher Institute indicated that alternative locations do not have the capacity to serve the number of Americans who currently rely on Planned Parenthood for their healthcare.

Delaware’s Planned Parenthood health centers provide important access to Medicaid-funded reproductive health care and family planning services. They provide the full range of reproductive healthcare in Delaware. Among other things, they provide sexually-transmitted infection testing and treatment, contraception procedures, counseling, and management, cancer screening and prevention services and procedures, pregnancy tests and counseling, prenatal care, and abortion care.1 In 2024, Planned Parenthood health centers in Delaware provided reproductive health care and family planning services at 2,388 visits to 1,656 unique patients using Delaware Medicaid program funding. For many women, family planning and reproductive health care are the primary health care they regularly receive.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the prohibited Medicaid reimbursements. But last week, following the expiration of a temporary restraining order enjoining the Defund Provision, most Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide became cut off from Medicaid funding. Yesterday, the court granted Planned Parenthood’s injunction in full, concluding that the Defund Provision violates the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause as well as the prohibition on Bills of Attainder in the U.S. Constitution.

In the filing, the coalition argues that the Defund Provision, which prohibits Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood, is impermissibly ambiguous and violates Congress’s Spending Clause power. They highlight that the provision is likely to increase health risks, including delayed diagnoses of STIs and cancer and increased unintended pregnancies, which will result not only in widespread and devastating effects on the health of our most vulnerable residents, but also increased costs of $30 million over the next five years and $52 million over the next ten years in Medicaid programs. They urge the court to enjoin the Trump Administration from implementing the provision in order to prevent the tremendous harm this will have on public health and welfare of their states, as well as the increased costs to the states.

A copy of the lawsuit is available here.

Joining Delaware in the filing are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Josh Shapiro, in his official capacity as governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

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