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OAKLAND — Alongside Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and New York Attorney General Letitia James, California Attorney General Rob Bonta today co-led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit supporting Planned Parenthood in its challenge to the Trump Administration’s unlawful efforts to defund its health centers. The Defund Provision, enacted as part of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill Act, blocks federal Medicaid funding for essential medical services such as cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing, and wellness exams provided at “prohibited entities.” The criteria for a “prohibited entity” were crafted so that this Defund Provision applies almost exclusively to Planned Parenthood, fulfilling a long-standing goal by Republicans of punishing Planned Parenthood for providing and advocating in support of abortion care. California Planned Parenthoods provide care to nearly one million people annually, and over 80% of Planned Parenthood patients in California rely on Medi-Cal programs to access healthcare. The Defund Provision is already having impacts in California. Planned Parenthood locations have closed altogether and others are limiting services.
“The Trump Administration’s assault on healthcare, which includes reproductive care, knows no bounds. Right now, the federal government remains shut down because Republicans refuse to act to stop Americans’ monthly premiums from skyrocketing. At the same time, we cannot lose sight of how disastrous the Defund Provision will be for the loss of vital healthcare services that Planned Parenthood and other health centers provide,” said Attorney General Bonta. “My fellow attorneys general and I have filed our own lawsuit against the provision, and we are now continuing to show our unyielding support for the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood. The Trump Administration says that it wants to Make America Healthy Again, but its actions repeatedly tell a far different story. We cannot, and will not, remain silent.”
Attorney General Bonta joined a coalition of 23 states in July in suing the Trump Administration over the Defund Provision and filed a motion for a preliminary injunction last month. That case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Planned Parenthood also filed a parallel challenge, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Kennedy, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In that case, the District Court preliminarily enjoined enforcement of the Defund Provision, concluding that Planned Parenthood had demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on their claims that the Defund Provision violated the First Amendment and the Equal Protection clause, as well as the prohibition on Bills of Attainder in the U.S. Constitution. On September 11, 2025, the First Circuit issued an unpublished order granting the Trump Administration’s request to allow the Defund Provision to go into effect. The brief filed today supports Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction, providing the First Circuit with additional evidence of the irreparable injury that implementation of the Defund Provision would have on the amici States and their citizens.
Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare in the United States. As the brief states, because many other providers elect not to accept Medicaid patients, Planned Parenthood is often one of the only providers of reproductive healthcare services in rural and underserved areas. In fiscal year 2023 to 2024, Planned Parenthood provided 9.45 million services across the country, including 425,000 cancer screening and prevention services, 2.2 million contraceptive services, 4.1 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, as well as primary care visits, pregnancy tests, and prenatal services. Of those 9.45 million services, Planned Parenthood provided approximately 400,000 abortion services, a small fraction of the services provided to patients. Planned Parenthood receives no federal funding for abortion care.
The brief states that other providers do not have the capacity to handle the high volume of patients that Planned Parenthood health centers currently treat. If additional Planned Parenthood health centers are forced to close, other providers would have to increase their caseloads by 28% to more than 100%, if they choose to accept the patients at all. State budgets are limited, and using state funds to fully reimburse Planned Parenthood for all Medicaid services would strain state finances at a time where states are already dealing with unprecedented levels of federal funding cuts. For California, that would require $328 million.
The brief was co-led by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, and New York and joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
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