DELAWARE / MARYLAND - Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced she has joined a multistate lawsuit seeking to block new federal conditions tied to Title X family planning funding.
Jennings is part of a coalition that includes 23 other states challenging the policy in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The lawsuit argues that the new conditions threaten federal funding for reproductive health care, family planning, cancer screenings and other preventive health services.
“Like many other attempts by this Administration to cut off our federal funding, this is extortion, plain and simple,” said Jennings. “In threatening to illegally cut off federal funds for family planning, they’re trying to force us to throw LGBTQ+ Delawareans under the bus, but our response here is the same as it’s always been: we’ll see you in court.”
Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated to family planning and related preventive health services. For more than 50 years, the program has helped low-income patients access contraception, cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling and other preventive health care.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a new funding notice in July for the next five-year grant cycle. According to the lawsuit, it's the first time the notice requires applicants to align their programs with several administration priorities to receive or retain federal funding.
The coalition of attorney generals argues those requirements include eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion practices, changing how programs serve transgender patients, encouraging natural family planning and requiring clinics to promote marriage and parenthood rather than providing neutral, patient-centered counseling. The states also challenge a condition of funding related to “ending crime and disorder on America's streets,” arguing it is unrelated to the purpose of Title X funding.
Jennings and the coalition contend the new conditions conflict with Title X laws and regulations that require providers to offer a broad range of contraceptive methods, provide nondirective counseling and serve patients without discrimination, including LGBTQ+ patients. The lawsuit also argues the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services imposed the conditions without the notice-and-comment process required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
“We expect applicants to demonstrate how their Title X projects will integrate noninvasive, evidence-based practices that promote health literacy, fertility awareness and reproductive health without unnecessary medicalization or symptom suppression,” said the guidelines.
Citing an overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments, the guidelines encourage Title X clinics to counsel patients about lifestyle factors that influence general health and fertility and to expand access to fertility-awareness-based methods. The guidelines also state applicants cannot use Title X funding to promote or offer abortions.
“HHS is committed to ensuring Title X funds are not used for abortions consistent with the law and President Trump’s Executive Order on Enforcing the Hyde Amendment,” said Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for HHS, in a statement. “HHS is aligning the program with President Trump’s pro-life and pro-family agenda.”
The states are asking the court to declare the new conditions unlawful and prevent HHS from enforcing them while allowing state health agencies and other qualified providers to continue receiving Title X funding under existing rules. Joining Jennings in the coalition are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
