Despite the importance of Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics to ensuring availability of and access to health care for Medicaid beneficiaries, Congress enacted a law prohibiting Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortion care from receiving federal Medicaid funding. In two cases, NWLC, alongside our colleagues at the National Health Law Program (NHELP), filed amicus briefs in support of the reproductive health care providers.

We filed our first amicus brief on October 15, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Planned Parenthood Federation of America v. Kennedy. We filed our second amicus brief on October 29, again before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Family Planning Association of Maine v. Kennedy.

Our briefs argues that this unprecedented targeting and punishment of Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics subverts decades of congressional action designed to increase Medicaid eligibility among women of reproductive age, enhance coverage of reproductive health services, and ensure that beneficiaries have access to the same providers as individuals with private insurance. We likewise point out that this new law undercuts consistent congressional efforts, beginning in 1972, to improve Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to family planning services.