One of the country’s largest reproductive health advocacy groups is suing the Trump administration for withholding millions of dollars in federal family planning grants earlier this year.
The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday, claiming the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “unlawfully withheld” $65.8 million in Title X funds to 16 family planning groups.
Title X is the nation’s only federally funded family planning program providing birth control and reproductive health care to low-income Americans.
More than a dozen family planning organizations, including nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, received letters in late March stating the Trump administration planned to “temporarily withhold” their allotted Title X grant funding.
The administration restored millions in funding a few days later, but those dollars went to Oklahoma and Tennessee state health departments, which had been barred from receiving Title X funds during the Biden administration for violating some of the program’s rules.
“The consequences of withholding funding are devastating,” said Clare Coleman, president and CEO of NFPRHA.
“The loss of Title X means hundreds of thousands of patients are at risk of losing access to critical health care.”
Since the funds were frozen, more than 860 family planning service sites across 22 states have been unable to provide “critical health care” such as contraception, cancer screenings and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, according to the lawsuit.
At least seven states — California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Utah — no longer have any Title X-funded family planning services, the lawsuit adds.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to force HHS to dispense Title X to the 16 groups that have had their grant money withheld and pay the NFPRHA and the ACLU’s legal fees associated with filing the lawsuit.
They argue that by withholding the funds, the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act, an almost 80-year-old federal law that governs the process that federal agencies use to craft and implement new regulations.
They also argue HHS acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when deciding to withhold Title X funds for the 16 family planning groups since it did not provide a “reasonable explanation or justification” for its actions.
Plaintiffs argue that the agency targeted those particular family planning groups for making public statements supporting diversity, equity and inclusion and opposing racism, according to a press release from NFPRHA.
HHS has not responded to a request for comment about the lawsuit from The Hill.
“Withholding Title X funding for critical reproductive health care is the latest Trump administration attack on our communities,” said Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the ACLU.
“In its zeal to take away reproductive health care from the marginalized communities, the federal government violated its own laws, and it must be held accountable.”
