A coalition of Planned Parenthood chapters across almost a dozen states filed a lawsuit this week against the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arguing the new mandates would restrict their programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancy.
In March, the HHS informed several of its affiliates that their funding would be withheld under a program known as Title X. The HHS announced an immediate freeze of $27.5 million in family planning grants while it evaluated possible violations of their terms including federal civil rights law and an executive order issued by President Donald Trump entitled, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders." The administration has also sought to determine if any of the funds had been used for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
"Critically, this Notice failed to provide specifics as to how to 'align' TPP Programs, which require fidelity to existing evidence-based programming, with Executive Orders that are wholly inapplicable or conflict with the purpose and historical statutory mandates of the program," the lawsuit reads.
In their lawsuit, Planned Parenthood argues the new requirements from the Trump administration are unrelated to the efficacy of the program and are an underhanded way of forcing the programs to be canceled. The organization states the new mandates came two years into their five-year agreements with the federal government to conduct teen pregnancy programs that by law must follow evidence-based models deemed "proven effective in reducing unintended teen pregnancy or impacting associated sexual risk behaviors and consequences."
"The new requirements are impossibly vague, and to the extent they impose discernable standards at all, those standards would require funding recipients to violate the basic statutory requirements of the TPP program," the lawsuit stated.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told The Wall Street Journal that the funding freeze is just another way of Republicans working toward their ultimate goal saying, "The Trump-Vance-Musk administration wants to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers by any means necessary, and they'll end people's access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more to do it."