Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed onto a lawsuit this week that seeks to restore the use of federal funding at Planned Parenthood health centers in the state. He joins 21 states and the District of Columbia in the action initiated July 29.
In the domestic spending bill that Congress passed last month at the behest of President Donald Trump lies a provision to restrict states from accessing federal Medicaid dollars through reimbursement. The plaintiffs argue that the health centers, which received a combined $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, no longer will be able to access future Medicaid funds as retribution for reproductive health advocacy.
"Congress specifically designed the Defund Provision to target and punish [the Planned Parenthood Federation of America] and the Planned Parenthood health centers for advocating for abortion access," the 83-page suit says. "[This] will prevent … health centers from providing health care to millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid for their essential health care needs."
Signe Espinoza, executive director of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, released a statement just hours after Trump signed the omnibus bill on July 4.
Withheld federal funding "imposes dangerous restrictions that disproportionately harm people with low incomes, communities of color, and those already facing barriers to care," Espinoza wrote, estimating more than 20,000 Pennsylvanians could lose access to care at Planned Parenthood health centers.
Other local directors noted that the organization offers more than just abortion services. Their clinics also offer annual wellness exams, cancer screenings and "other essential care" in addition to STI testing and birth control prescriptions. Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania operates five centers: Johnstown, Greensburg, Bridgeville and two in Pittsburgh.
"Cuts are especially devastating for those in rural communities like Johnstown, where Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania is the only clinic in Cambria County to provide services under the Title X program," said Darah Boucher, PPWP's co-interim president and CEO, in a statement. "Many Pennsylvanians live in medically underserved areas. And already drive an hour or more for regular family planning healthcare services."
The new lawsuit brought by the states this week comes on the heels of a ruling in a similar case brought by Planned Parenthood itself. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration couldn't block Medicaid payments to health centers, including the nearly 600 locations operated by Planned Parenthood throughout the U.S.
Speaking to reporters Friday at an unrelated event in Philadelphia, Shapiro said he has now filed eight lawsuits that seek to return federal money withheld from Pennsylvania, amounting to nearly $3 billion.
" Go look at my record in this space," Shapiro said. "I filed the lawsuits. I win. The good people of Pennsylvania get their money back. If anyone is gonna mess with a Pennsylvanian — including the president of the United States — they're gonna have to go through me."
Shortly after those comments on Friday, the Shapiro administration announced it had joined another lawsuit against the Trump White House. That suit accuses the administration of unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
State Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill, who chairs the House Health committee, said he sees the effort to defund reproductive health care centers as an extra layer to the wider federal Medicaid rollbacks.
The domestic spending bill is "going to create a crisis" for people without employer-backed health plans, but also "for our hospitals, our clinics like Planned Parenthood that are not gonna be able to stay in business," Frankel said in an interview Friday.
Shapiro is the only governor listed among the plaintiffs suing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (That's because Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has stepped aside to allow the governor to sign onto federal funding lawsuits.)
Kennedy has come under fire for his vaccine skepticism, and Oz, as the face of an agency expected to reduce spending by the billions of dollars in coming years, has faced backlash from some congressional Republicans.
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