A coalition of 22 Democratic states and Washington, D.C., is suing the Department of Health and Human Services to prevent Planned Parenthood from getting defunded under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed earlier this month.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the United States District Court of Massachusetts, alleges the tax bill’s “defund provision” is unconstitutionally vague and claims it “will prevent Planned Parenthood health centers from providing health care to millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid for their essential healthcare needs.” The complaint also says the provision violates the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and freedom of association.

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The provision aimed to implement a one-year ban on Medicaid reimbursements to any healthcare provider that provides abortion services, prohibiting them from receiving more than $800,000 annually in Medicaid funds. The bill affects abortion providers Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning. They have both filed lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Planned Parenthood argued the loss of funding would force over 200 of its clinics across 24 states to close, affecting more than 1.1 million patients a year. The organization notes that Medicaid typically doesn’t cover abortion costs and is more regularly used for cancer screenings and treatments for sexually transmitted infections.

The plaintiffs in Tuesday’s lawsuit back up that argument.

“Because Medicaid is a state-federal partnership in which the states administer claims from medical providers for Medicaid reimbursements, the states—not the federal government—would ultimately be required to ensure that the Planned Parenthood health centers are effectively excluded from federal funding under the Defund Provision,” the coalition wrote in the 83-page complaint.

“And in so doing, Congress has also forced the States to harm themselves, by either 1) crippling the States’ medical healthcare ecosystems as Planned Parenthood health centers close or reduce hours and services, thereby increasing the States’ long-term medical care costs, or 2) using the States’ own funds to keep those health centers operating—and thereby foregoing matching federal funds.”

The plaintiffs are the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

New York Attorney General Letitia James bemoaned that the Trump administration is “once again playing politics with our health care system, with devastating consequences.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta similarly said the federal government is retaliating against Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, “for its constitutionally protected advocacy for abortion care.”

The litigation came one day after an Obama-appointed federal judge issued an injunction on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s defunding provision, handing a win to Planned Parenthood. The injunction will remain in effect for now until an appeals court takes action.

JUDGE BLOCKS PLANNED PARENTHOOD DEFUNDING PROVISION OF ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT

In a statement, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America took aim at the Democratic states that filed the lawsuit and the judge who levied the injunction this week.

“Rather than respect the democratic process, Democrats are once again running to activist judges to impose lawfare on Americans with their extreme abortion agenda,” SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser said. “They will not prevail.”