By PATRICK WHITTLE and GEOFF MULVIHILL

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A network of medical clinics that serves low-income residents in Maine said Wednesday it is shutting down its primary care operations because of Trump administration cuts to abortion providers.

President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big beautiful bill,” blocked Medicaid money from 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 also delivers other medical services in the mostly rural state.

Maine Family Planning has informed its nearly 1,000 primary care patients that it will no longer be providing primary care service starting Oct. 31, the network said. The loss of Medicaid funding took about $2 million in reimbursements from the network, and it is no longer able to sustain primary care, it said.

The network “will continue seeing patients who need family planning care, regardless of insurance status, for as long as we are able,” Maine Family Planning said in a statement. The group also provides birth control, sexually transmitted disease testing, cancer screenings and routine OBGYN visits, it said.

“We were caught in this net because we provide abortion care as part of a full range of sexual and reproductive health care at 18 sites. We are proud to provide that care,” said George Hill, president and chief executive officer of Maine Family Planning.

Of the 17,535 visits made to Maine Family Planning’s 18 health center and mobile medical unit in 2024, 13% were for primary care services, Hill said.

Maine Family Planning has fought the halting of Medicaid dollars in federal court. But it suffered a setback in August when a federal judge ruled against restoring funding during the network’s ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration. The network appealed to a higher court but has yet to receive a response. Hill said the legal fight will continue.

Maine Family Planning is one of three health organizations across the country that the federal government says is barred from receiving Medicaid reimbursements until the end of September 2026 under a provision in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law. It targets groups that provide abortion and receive more than $800,000 a year in Medicaid reimbursements. Medicaid already did not cover abortion.

Like Maine Family Planning, Planned Parenthood has sued in an effort to restore reimbursements.

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Planned Parenthood has said that up to 200 of its clinics might have to close because of the policy change. Some of its nearly 600 clinics have already shut down. In the past week, its Wisconsin affiliate announced that it would stop providing abortion, and the Arizona one took the opposite approach, saying it would halt Medicaid-funded services.

Julia Kehoe, president and CEO of Health Imperatives, which serves about 10,000 patients a year in southeastern Massachusetts, said her organization didn’t realize it was losing Medicaid reimbursements until the government said it was in an August legal filing.

She said the she believed the seven clinics in her group were safe from the cuts because they are not primarily a reproductive health organization. The cuts could mean a loss of about $1.8 million a year.

Instead of changing service offerings, Health Imperatives is working on getting additional state funding and donations to make up the difference – and more – with the aim of increasing access to health care.

Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

WARE, England — Not even a beautiful backdrop in the English countryside could hide how ugly it’s gotten for the Vikings on the offensive line.

The injuries have continued to pile up in the trenches, destroying what was supposed to be a strength for the Vikings this season, while forcing head coach Kevin O’Connell to work through new combinations, seemingly, on a daily basis.

The scene from practice on Wednesday afternoon at Hanbury Manor in Ware, England, helped illustrate how bleak it’s gotten.

You had reserve center Blake Brandel snapping the ball to veteran quarterback Carson Wentz because starting center Ryan Kelly (concussion) and backup center Michael Jurgens (hamstring) missed practice. Meanwhile, star left tackle Christian Darrisaw (rest), rookie left guard Donovan Jackson (wrist), and veteran right tackle Brian O’Neill (knee) also missed practice, meaning right guard Will Fries was the only player from the projected starting offensive line that actually participated.

Asked about the offensive line as a whole, with the Vikings preparing to play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, O’Connell replied, “We’re working through what that group is going to look like and ultimately where we think we’re at as far as the best collection we can put out there.”

The hope from within the Vikings is that they can at least get Jurgens back at some point this week. If he isn’t cleared to participate in practice, however, Brandel would more than likely get the start in the game.

That would set off a chain reaction that could potentially put rookie left guard Joe Huber in position to make his NFL debut on an offensive line that is also more than likely going to feature backup right tackle Justin Skule.

Not ideal for the Vikings considering the Browns might have the best defensive front in the NFL, led by superstar edge rusher Myles Garrett.

“He’s as unique of a player that we have in the league as far as his every down impact,” O’Connell said before cracking a joke. “Just hope they don’t split him out at X receiver and try to throw him fades.”

The rest of the defensive line seems to feed off the energy Garrett brings to the table snap in and snap out.

“Everything about what they do is forward,” O’Connell said. “They’re trying to win the line of scrimmage from the split second of that ball getting snapped.”

That could spell trouble for the Vikings considering they’ve allowed a league high 18 sacks so far this season. The struggles coincide with the fact that there has been so much shuffling on the offensive line to this point.

“I will never ever question their effort,” Wentz said. “That’s something that’s been constant no matter who’s in there.”

As for Brandel, he’s capable of playing ever position on the offensive line, which is why the Vikings have prioritized keeping him around.

“I try to bring some versatility,” Brandel said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help the team win.”

Though there will probably be some growing pains with so many new faces up front, Wentz is confident in the offensive line and its ability to hold up, regardless of who’s missing from the usual operation.

“The guys are locked in and want to do the best they can,” Wentz said. “We’ve got some good guys here who are ready to accept the challenge.”

Briefly

In addition to the various offensive linemen, the Vikings were also without quarterback J.J. McCarthy (ankle), tight end Ben Yurosek (knee), and edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel (neck) during practice. The good news is the Vikings got full participation from fullback C.J. Ham (knee) and edge rusher Tyler Batty (knee) as they work their way back from injured reserve.

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By TIM SULLIVAN, Associated Press

An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.

The class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday by concrete worker Leo Garcia Venegas with the public interest law firm Institute for Justice, demands an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics.”

Venegas, who was born in the U.S., lives and works in Baldwin County, Alabama, a Gulf Coast area between the cities of Mobile and Pensacola, Florida, that has seen immense population growth in the last 15 years, and which offers plenty of construction work.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after the Supreme Court lifted a judge’s restraining order that had barred immigration agents in Los Angeles from stopping people solely based on their race, language, job or location.

The court has repeatedly allowed some of the Trump administrations harshest immigration policies, while also leaving open that legal outcomes could shift as cases play out.

The new lawsuit describes repeated raids on workplaces despite agents having no warrants nor suspicion that specific workers were in the U.S. illegally, and a string of U.S. citizens — many with Latino-sounding names — who were detained.

The Department of Homeland Security “authorizes these armed raids based on the general assumption that certain groups of people in the industry, including Latinos, are likely illegal immigrants,” the suit argues.

In a May raid that swept up Venegas, video shot by a coworker shows him being forced to the ground by immigration agents as he repeatedly insisted he was a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit says the agents targeted workers at the building site who looked Latino, while leaving alone the other workers. Venegas was released after more than an hour, according to the law firm.

Venegas was detained again at another construction site less than a month later.

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“It feels like there is nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want,” Leo said in a statement released by the law firm. “I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that.”

Venegas, who specializes in laying concrete foundations, says he was detained both times despite showing his Alabama-issued REAL ID driver’s license — a higher-security identity card available only to U.S. citizens and legal residents.

Immigration agents told him the ID card was fake, before eventually releasing him. He was released after about 20-30 minutes.

“Immigration officers are not above the law,” Institute for Justice attorney Jaba Tsitsuashvili said in a statement. “Leo is a hardworking American citizen standing up for everyone’s right to work without being detained merely for the way they look or the job that they do.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government shutdown that began Wednesday will deprive policymakers and investors of economic data vital to their decision-making at a time of unusual uncertainty about the direction of the U.S. economy.

The absence will be felt almost immediately, as the government’s monthly jobs report scheduled for release Friday will likely be delayed. A weekly report on the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits — a proxy for layoffs that is typically published on Thursdays — will also be postponed.

If the shutdown is short-lived, it won’t be very disruptive. But if the release of economic data is delayed for several weeks or longer, it could pose challenges, particularly for the Federal Reserve. The Fed is grappling with where to set a key interest rate at a time of conflicting signals, with inflation running above its 2% target and hiring nearly ground to a halt, driving the unemployment rate higher in August.

The Fed typically cuts this rate when unemployment rises, but raises it — or at least leaves it unchanged — when inflation is rising too quickly. It’s possible the Fed will have little new federal economic data to analyze by its next meeting on Oct. 28-29, when it is widely expected to reduce its rate again.

“The job market had been a source of real strength in the economy but has been slowing down considerably the past few months,” said Michael Linden, senior policy fellow at the left-leaning Washington Center for Equitable Growth. “It would be very good to know if that slowdown was continuing, accelerating, or reversing.”

The Fed cut its rate by a quarter-point earlier this month and signaled it was likely to do so twice more this year. Fed officials said they would keep a close eye on how inflation and unemployment evolve, but that depends on the data being available.

A key inflation report is scheduled for Oct. 15 and the government’s monthly retail sales report is slated for release the next day.

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“We’re in a meeting-by-meeting situation, and we’re going to be looking at the data,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during a news conference earlier this month.

On Wall Street, investors obsess over the monthly jobs reports, typically issued the first Friday of every month. It’s a crucial indicator of the economy’s health and provides insights into how the Fed might adjust interest rates, which affects the cost of borrowing and influences how investors allocate their money.

So far, investors don’t seem fazed by the shutdown. The broad S&P 500 stock index rose slightly in midday trading on Wednesday.

Many businesses also rely on government data to gauge how the economy is faring. The Commerce Department’s monthly report on retail sales, for example, is a comprehensive look at the health of U.S. consumers and can influence whether companies make plans to expand or shrink their operations and workforces.

With the government closed, the Fed, economists, and investors will likely focus more on private data.

On Wednesday, the payroll provider ADP issued its monthly employment data, which showed that businesses cut 32,000 jobs in September — a signal the economy is slowing. Still, ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said her firm’s report “was not intended to be a replacement” for government statistics.

The ADP data does not capture what’s happening at government agencies, for example — an area of the economy that could be significantly affected by a lengthy shutdown.

“Using a portfolio of private sector and government data gives you a better chance of capturing a very complicated economy in a complex world,” she said.