Federal Judge Upholds Congress’s Power To Defund Abortion Industry

With all the recent judicial activism we’ve seen over this past year, it’s good to see a federal judge who understands that his job is to uphold the laws passed through our democratic process – not to rewrite them as he sees fit.

As reported by The New York Times:

A federal judge in Maine declined on Monday to block the government from stripping Medicaid funding from one of Maine’s largest abortion providers, finding that to do so would override “the will of the people as expressed by Congress.”

At issue is a provision of the tax and spending bill Congress passed in July that would deny abortion providers Medicaid funding even for health services other than performing abortions.

In a blunt, 19-page opinion, Judge Lance E. Walker of the Federal District Court in Maine wrote that, particularly after the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, he could neither consider abortion services a constitutional right nor stop Congress from advancing laws to defund organizations that provide them.

“It would be a special kind of judicial hubris to declare that the public interest has been undermined by the public,” wrote Judge Walker, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term.

Since Congress passed the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” cutting off taxpayer funding to abortion providers, Planned Parenthood has been fighting this nonstop. But now a smaller abortion provider, Maine Family Planning , attempted to get its federal money fountain turned back on, asking a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction to force the government to keep the money flowing.

As we’ve told you, the ACLJ filed an urgent brief in the case, pointing out that Congress alone controls federal spending. Courts cannot order Congress to spend money it has deliberately chosen not to appropriate. Doing so would blow up the separation of powers. Fortunately, and correctly, the judge told the abortion provider, no.

Judge Walker’s detailed opinion reminded everyone: “[T]he judicial branch, despite much generated confusion on the basic point, does not serve as an omnibus super legislature to sit in final judgment as to which policy outcomes it prefers. That judgment rests with the people.”

He’s exactly right. Judges aren’t elected to make policy. If the people, through their representatives, decide not to fund abortion providers, then that’s the law. If someone doesn’t like it, their remedy isn’t to run to a friendly courtroom – it’s to persuade their fellow citizens and vote.

This stands in sharp contrast to what happened recently in Massachusetts, where a different judge practically bent over backward to hand Planned Parenthood and its affiliates sweeping relief, and additional millions in funding. She practically rewrote the rules. The Maine judge, on the other hand, called that for what it is: judicial hubris. He even quoted the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, reminding us that abortion is not a constitutional right and that questions about it belong in the democratic process, not in courtrooms.

Of course, the battle isn’t over. Planned Parenthood and its allies will keep shopping for judges to give them what they lost at the ballot box. But decisions like this remind us that the Constitution still has a voice in the courts – and the courts are supposed to respect the will of the people and apply the law, not write it.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more analysis of this major legal victory not just for life but for the Constitution itself, as well as ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo, who discussed the latest on President Trump’s war on crime in our cities.

Watch the full broadcast below: