Independent, UK - A network of clinics in Maine will not resume getting Medicaid funds to treat thousands of low-income patients during its lawsuit over Trump administration cuts to abortion providers, a judge ruled Monday. President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big beautiful bill,” blocked Medicaid money from flowing to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The parameters in the bill also stopped funding from reaching Maine Family Planning, a much smaller provider that offers health care services in one of the poorest and most rural states in the Northeast.
Maine Family Planning says Medicaid dollars are not used for its abortion services, which are a relatively small percentage of the overall services provided. It’s unfair to cut off funding for the clinics “solely because Congress wanted to defund Planned Parenthood,” an attorney for Maine Family Planning told the judge earlier this month.
But in his ruling Monday, Judge Lance Walker said the payments will not resume during the ongoing lawsuit by the provider seeking to restore the funds.
Press Herald - A group of protesters disrupted a ceremonial ribbon cutting Tuesday in Waldo County featuring U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, highlighting the tense political climate Maine’s senior senator is likely to navigate during her reelection campaign.
The event reportedly was moved indoors as about 200 protesters lined the sidewalks of downtown Searsport, a small coastal town east of Belfast.
The town was celebrating a $17.8 million downtown revitalization project that received $9.2 million in federal funding secured by Collins.
Video posted on the social media website X, formerly Twitter, shows Collins being booed by dozens of protesters who followed her inside as she approached the podium. Some chanted “shame.”
A longer video posted to YouTube shows Collins being greeted with chants of “stop funding genocide,” a reference to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza that world health organizations say is causing starvation among civilians, including children.Protesters continued to shout angrily about Collins’ lack of town hall meetings, her support for Israel and her recent votes on U.S. Supreme Court nominees, as the town manager and Collins sought to restore order and refocus the event on the ribbon cutting.
Collins offered to meet with protesters after the event if they stopped interrupting the ceremony, which they didn’t do.