Since 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pressed a lawsuit that the Texas Tribune calls "an existential threat for Planned Parenthood." Last week, Paxton lost his race for the U.S. Senate, and Texans elected a Democrat, Nathan Johnson, to replace him as attorney general.

Days later, the Trump administration said it would move to join Paxton's case.

The U.S. Justice Department told a federal court it plans to file a motion to intervene in the lawsuit by November 13, the Texas Tribune reported on Sunday. The move was first reported by the New York Times.

A $10 million billing fight, a $1.8 billion demand

Texas joined the lawsuit in 2022. It accuses Planned Parenthood of improperly billing Medicaid during the years Texas was trying to throw the group out of the program.

The lawsuit is over $10 million in Medicaid payments, and the state is seeking more than $1.8 billion in repayment, penalties and fees.

Planned Parenthood has called the case "meritless," and said Sunday it will keep fighting what it called an effort to bully it out of business.

"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 at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Now, they are going to use the Department of Justice to try again."

The judge, and the timing

The case is in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who worked on anti-abortion cases as a lawyer before he became a judge. Both sides have proposed that the trial start in April 2027.

The Texas Tribune calls Paxton "the lawsuit's champion." His loss and Johnson's win are poised to shake up an attorney general's office that has long been used to push a conservative agenda through the courts, the Tribune reports. Johnson hasn't said what he'll do with the case.

"We are reviewing this action closely, including what it means for Texans and what the law allows," Johnson said Sunday. "When I take office as Attorney General, I will take appropriate action in the interests of my state."

He has already said he will not sue out-of-state doctors for mailing abortion pills to Texans. Paxton did exactly that: we've written about how he sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a patient in Plano, part of years spent chasing Texas's abortion ban across state lines before he went quiet on abortion in his Senate race.

Part of a bigger push

This is not the only way Republicans have gone after Planned Parenthood's Medicaid money. Trump's budget bill blocked Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for a year — including for cancer screenings and birth control. In New York, Mike Lawler voted for it twice, and the state had to spend $35 million to cover the gap.

What the record shows

Ken Paxton joined a 2022 lawsuit that seeks more than $1.8 billion from Planned Parenthood over $10 million in Medicaid payments. Last week Paxton lost his Senate race and Texans elected a Democratic attorney general who hasn't said what he'll do with the case. Days later, the Trump Justice Department told the court it plans to ask to step in.

Source

Feds plan to take over Texas lawsuit against Planned Parenthood — The Texas Tribune, November 8, 2026