A federal appeals court again overturned a lower court’s ruling halting a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that prevents Medicaid reimbursements to abortion providers, marking the second case in which U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has been overruled on the same matter.
The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit found that the Trump administration sufficiently showed it was likely to prevail on its arguments that the provision of the bill was lawful and not ambiguous. Tuesday’s ruling came in a case brought by a group of Democrat-led states, which argued the federal government failed to give clear notice of the new provision to states that participate in the joint federal-state Medicaid program.
“We conclude that the Federal Defendants have made a strong showing that they are likely to succeed in demonstrating that this ground also likely does not support the Preliminary Injunction,” the panel of judges appointed by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden said in its Tuesday ruling.
The panel temporarily halted Talwani’s Dec. 2 ruling after a different panel on the appeals court issued a temporary pause to Talwani’s ruling in a case brought by Planned Parenthood challenging the legality of the same provision on different grounds.
In both cases, the appeals court panels later issued firm rulings siding with the Trump administration and overturning Talwani’s rulings, which both had attempted to prevent the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s defunding of abortion providers. In the Planned Parenthood case, the appeals court panel vacated Talwani’s injunction blocking the provision and remanded the case back to her court for further proceedings.
Talwani, an Obama appointee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, has ruled against the Trump administration in multiple high-profile cases this year, including lawsuits over the administration’s bid to end mass parole for migrants and funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown.
The rulings by the 1st Circuit siding with the Trump administration in the abortion funding cases are noteworthy, as the liberal-leaning appeals court has largely upheld lower court orders that blocked the Trump administration’s agenda.
TRUMP’S HISTORIC YEAR OF SUPREME COURT VICTORIES
At the Supreme Court’s emergency docket this year, the 1st Circuit has been reversed by the high court in every case the Trump administration has brought contesting its rulings.
The provision blocking abortion providers from Medicaid reimbursements included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is only slated to apply for one year, but was a significant win for anti-abortion activists, who have argued that the reimbursements indirectly help abortion providers fund the procedure. Federal funds cannot be directly used toward abortion under the Hyde Amendment.