Maine is joining a multi-state coalition suing to stop the Trump administration from blocking Medicaid funding for reproductive health care providers.
That comes a day after a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction to allow providers that offer abortion care to participate in the Medicaid program.
In the 83-page lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, the attorneys general argued that the provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed on July 4, is “impermissibly ambiguous” and violates the U.S. Constitution’s spending clause.
Under the so-called defund provision, organizations such as Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning would be ineligible for Medicaid reimbursements. In Maine, Medicaid is known as MaineCare.
Further, they contend that the provision targeting Planned Parenthood and other health providers offering reproductive care will jeopardize access to health care for more than 1 million Americans, particularly women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
That could affect access to cancer screenings, birth control and sexually transmitted infection testing, the lawsuit says.
“With rural hospitals under constant threat, there are many rural and low-income Mainers without access to health care providers. Without Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning, these patients in Maine will simply have nowhere to turn for routine healthcare,” Attorney General Frey said.
The attorneys general pointed to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports sexual and reproductive rights, that found that federally qualified health centers, hospitals, health department clinics and other providers would be unable to absorb the patients.
In Maine, where Planned Parenthood serves 26 percent of all contraceptive care patients, other providers would have to expand their capacity 36 percent to absorb those patients. Nationally, other providers would need to expand their capacity 50 percent to care for those additional patients.
The Guttmacher Institute said in its May analysis, before Congress passed and Trump signed the bill, that its “unrealistic” to expect providers to expand their capacity to take on patients from Planned Parenthood and other such organizations.
In the lawsuit, Frey is joining the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
