Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, as part of a coalition of 22 states and Washington, D.C., sued the Trump Administration today over the sweeping budget reconciliation law (the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), specifically the “Defund Provision” signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month. The provision targets Planned Parenthood by blocking Medicaid reimbursements for essential healthcare services—such as cancer screenings, birth control, and STI testing—provided at Planned Parenthood health centers. Without these reimbursements, many Planned Parenthood clinics will be forced to close or reduce services, disrupting preventative care and increasing healthcare costs nationwide.
“Defunding Planned Parenthood is not about fiscal responsibility—it’s about targeting healthcare providers that some politicians don’t like,” said Attorney General Dan Rayfield. “Planned Parenthood is where thousands of Oregonians go for cancer screenings, contraception, and basic medical care. Pulling Medicaid funding doesn’t make that need disappear, it just makes it harder for people to stay healthy.”
For several years, President Trump and his congressional allies have been vocal about their goal to “axe” funding for Planned Parenthood. The recently enacted Defund Provision is the latest step in that multi-year effort to target and punish Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its members and health centers for advocating for reproductive freedom and exercising their First Amendment rights to speech and expression.
Because Medicaid is a state-federal partnership, Congress’s move has conscripted the states to carry out these unconstitutional objectives when they process Medicaid reimbursement. States are now placed in an untenable position: either allow Planned Parenthood clinics to close—crippling state healthcare systems and driving up long-term medical costs—or use state funds to keep those health centers open, forfeiting matching federal dollars.
In Oregon alone, Planned Parenthood health centers rely on more than $16.7 million in annual Medicaid reimbursements to cover over 51,000 patient visits—nearly 60% of all patients depend on Medicaid for care, ranging from cancer screenings to birth control and STI testing.
“We are grateful Oregon has joined this multi-state lawsuit. This law is a targeted attack on Planned Parenthood and the millions of patients – including tens of thousands in Oregon – who rely on Planned Parenthood health care services,” said Dr. Sara Kennedy, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette. “We’re not backing down from this fight, and we feel fortunate to be in partnership with the Attorney General’s office to ensure our communities have access to the care they deserve.”
“This law is dangerous and unnecessary,” said Amy Handler, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon. “The Trump administration and its backers in Congress are trying to make it harder to access care – meaning cancers will go undetected, STIs will go untreated, and patients won’t get the birth control or abortion care they need to plan their families and futures. We look forward to working closely with the Attorney General’s office to protect access to care.”
Defunding Planned Parenthood threatens at least 200 health centers nationwide, affecting care for more than 1.1 million people, many of whom are unlikely to receive services elsewhere. While some Republican lawmakers claim Federally Qualified Health Centers can absorb displaced patients, recent findings from the Guttmacher Institute show these facilities do not have the capacity to replace the care currently provided by Planned Parenthood.
Today’s action by the plaintiff states complements a lawsuit filed earlier this month by PPFA and two of its local affiliates against the Trump administration, which seeks to vindicate the rights of PPFA and its affiliates nationwide. The district court granted a preliminary injunction in that suit, ruling that the Defund Provision violates the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause as well as the prohibition on Bills of Attainder in the U.S. Constitution.
In today’s filing, the coalition argues that the Defund Provision also violates the rights of the states. The complaint warns that implementation will lead to delayed diagnoses of cancer and STIs, increased unintended pregnancies, and higher healthcare costs, estimated at $30 million over five years and $52 million over ten years in Medicaid programs alone.
In this lawsuit, Attorney General Rayfield joins the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Josh Shapiro, in his official capacity as governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
