Trump DOJ shores up anti-abortion groups’ support amid bid to salvage $1.8 billion Planned Parenthood lawsuit

The Trump administration is moving to preserve a potentially seismic financial case against the nation’s largest facilitator of abortions, Planned Parenthood, as Republicans’ midterm collapse threatens to dismantle a powerful engine of anti-abortion litigation in Texas.

The Justice Department notified a federal court Friday that it plans to intervene in the Medicaid billing lawsuit seeking more than $1.8 billion. The move came days after Democrat Nathan Johnson won the election in Texas to succeed Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the case’s political champion.

“This is an excellent and long-overdue move by the DOJ,” Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told the Washington Examiner on Monday.

The case began with an anonymous plaintiff, identified as Alex Doe, who sued under the False Claims Act in 2021. The law allows private whistleblowers to pursue alleged fraud against the government. Texas joined in 2022, alleging Planned Parenthood improperly retained Medicaid payments while fighting removal from the program.

About $10 million in payments is disputed, but damages and penalties push the demand above $1.8 billion — a financial threat with consequences far beyond Texas.

“We welcome the good news that the Department of Justice will stand with the whistleblower in this case,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Planned Parenthood has called the lawsuit “meritless.”

“The Trump administration has spent two years trying to shut down Planned Parenthood through legislative, administrative, and legal attacks,” said Susan Baker Manning, a senior vice president for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Now, they are going to use the Department of Justice to try again.”

The intervention, first reported by the New York Times on Friday, came days after Paxton’s defeat in the Senate race and Republicans’ loss of both congressional chambers. It places federal muscle behind a case whose state support is likely to fade away after the state’s first Democratic attorney general since 1999 takes office.

Texas Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson speaks against a bill that would add new abortion restrictions, Sept. 3, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Johnson has promised to drop litigation he determines was politically motivated, questioning cases against BlackRock, State Street, and Johnson & Johnson. He has also pledged to stop suing out-of-state abortion pill prescribers.

He has not yet committed to a position on Planned Parenthood.

“When I take office as Attorney General, I will take appropriate action in the interests of my state,” Johnson said Sunday.

Both sides in the lawsuit have proposed an April 2027 trial before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, making the stakes even higher for the DOJ to salvage a case that is so close to a trial.

For anti-abortion leaders, the DOJ move also brings them closer to realizing one of their broader hopes for the Trump administration, which is for the administration to lean on federal authority at a time when legislative avenues are narrowing and some critics have questioned the administration’s commitment to advancing policies to limit abortions.

Dannenfelser has not hesitated to confront the administration on areas she believes need improvement or attention. In January, she rebuked President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Republicans be flexible on abortion-funding restrictions, warning that giving in to Democrats would be “a massive betrayal.”

The Food and Drug Administration’s mifepristone study is also a linchpin for anti-abortion activists. Advocates believe any potential findings that substantiate their safety concerns could strengthen the case for restoring in-person dispensing requirements, restricting telehealth and mail-order access to the abortion drug even in states where abortion remains legal.

NEW TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS HE’LL STOP SUING DOCTORS MAILING ABORTION PILLS FROM OUT OF STATE

They also want the DOJ to change course in litigation challenging those rules, rather than seek delays pending the review.

Their impatience grew after repeated study delays and the approval of another generic mifepristone. The FDA under the Biden administration previously found the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks under approved conditions and permanently extended the pandemic-era loosening of in-person prescription rules. Activist groups now anxiously await the results of the new study that could change the government’s posture on the abortion drug.

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