A federal appeals court has shot down the argument by Planned Parenthood that, essentially, it has a constitutional right to tax money to use in its overall business model that includes abortion.

The ruling comes from the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded Congress has the constitutional authority to redirect tax money in the Medicaid program away from the largest player in America’s abortion industry.

“This decision represents hope for countless unborn children,” explained the American Center for Law and Justice, which offered amicus briefs on the dispute.

“When the largest abortion provider loses access to hundreds of millions in federal funding, its capacity to destroy life diminishes. Fewer abortions mean more lives saved – more children who will experience life, more mothers who will know the joy of holding their babies. The fight continues, but today, we celebrate this significant victory for life.”

The ACLJ described the decision as “a huge blow to abortion giant Planned Parenthood and a landmark decision that represents a significant victory for the sanctity of life.”

The court confirmed that Congress has broad discretionary power to determine how taxpayer dollars are spent, and in this case, when legislators “choose to redirect funds away from abortion providers, they are exercising legitimate constitutional authority,” the ACLJ reported.

“The panel wisely rejected claims that this legislation violates the Constitution, recognizing that establishing conditions on federal funds to protect life is a prospective policy choice, not punishment,” the ACLJ said.

The legal team explained, “Our amicus briefs in this case provided the court with crucial constitutional analysis, demonstrating that Congress has every right to establish conditions on how federal funds are distributed. The court’s decision reflects many of the arguments we advanced: that redirecting taxpayer money away from abortion providers is a legitimate exercise of congressional spending power, not unconstitutional punishment.”

The appeals court decision ended lower court rulings that had blocked implementation of Section 71113 of the 2025 Reconciliation Act.

That provision called for a ban on Medicaid funding for “certain large abortion providers.”

While the Hyde Amendment does prevent direct federal funding for most abortions, the “fungible nature” of cash meant that abortion providers funded for other services were effectively getting subsidies for their abortion operations.

The ACLJ said, “By withholding Medicaid funding from certain large abortion providers, Congress is sending a clear message: Organizations cannot expect American taxpayers to fund their operations while they destroy innocent human lives.”

The funding halt actually is for a single year, although members of Congress have expressed a desire to extend that.

Various Planned Parenthood entities alleged in court that the law “is an unconstitutional bill of attainder, an unconstitutional condition on their right to associate under the First Amendment, and denies them equal protection of the law,” the ruling noted.

The ruling found that the congressional spending plan did not, in fact, punish Planned Parenthood.

The lower court rulings had come from a leftist activist on the bench, Indira Talwai, who repeatedly has ruled against plans and programs implemented by President Trump.

“Preventing these entities from receiving funds if they continue providing abortion services furthers Congress’s interest in reducing abortions. Plaintiffs, therefore, are unlikely to succeed in showing that Section 71113 violates equal protection,” said the appellate judges.