“The First Circuit’s move reaffirms what Southern Baptists have claimed all along: The federal government has no business bankrolling abortion providers.”
Katy Roberts, ERLC senior policy manager
The First Circuit Court of Appeals decided in favor of the Trump Administration Thursday (Sept. 11), allowing a key component of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” to be enforced.
The massive budget bill, passed by Congress this summer and signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, included a provision removing Medicaid funds from health care providers that provide abortions.
Planned Parenthood sued, claiming that abortion is only one of the services provided by its clinics, some of which do not provide abortions at all. A district court judge issued an injunction of that part of the legislation July 21. That injunction was put on hold in Thursday’s ruling.
Katy Roberts, senior policy manager of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said Planned Parenthood’s claim is dubious.
“In its ruling, even the First Circuit cannot help but reveal the inconsistencies in Planned Parenthood’s legal approach,” Roberts said. “Planned Parenthood and its affiliates claim their priority is public health, but their line of logic and deliberately deceptive business practices boast otherwise. It remains a fact that abortion and abortion counseling comprises 96.9 percent of their pregnancy resolution service provision.”
In its motion for a stay of the injunction, the Justice Department argued that Congress and the president have the power to decide how taxpayer dollars are spent.
“The elected Branches determined that taxpayer funds should not be used to subsidize certain entities that practice abortion – conduct that many Americans find morally abhorrent,” the motion said. “By requiring that such subsidies continue, the district court’s injunctions intrude on both Congress’ Article I authority over federal spending and the Executive’s Article II authority to enforce the law.”
Read the full article from Baptist Press.
