Several Planned Parenthood affiliates have rejected millions of dollars in federal family planning grants that the Trump administration had only recently restored after a legal challenge.
According to the Daily Caller, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) had sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over a freeze on $27.5 million in Title X family planning grants to Planned Parenthood.
The Trump administration subsequently and quietly reinstated the grants, leading the ACLU and NFPRHA to withdraw their lawsuit rather than risk a courtroom defeat that could have strengthened the administrations hand.
In a Jan. 16 letter obtained by the Caller, Planned Parenthood affiliates in the Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, and Kentucky informed HHS that they no longer wished to receive their portion of the restored funds. The affiliates decision effectively turns away $2.3 million in taxpayer money that had been earmarked for their operations.
The grants will be terminated effective Feb. 1, a source familiar with the matter told the Caller. That cutoff follows an earlier HHS decision to freeze the funding over possible violations of a Trump executive order barring federally funded organizations from engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
When the grants were restored, an administration official told the Caller that the Trump administration made clear the awards would be scrutinized under new regulations allowing HHS to weigh whether the grants advanced administration priorities. Those priorities have consistently emphasized protecting unborn life and ensuring that federal dollars do not indirectly subsidize abortion providers, even under the guise of family planning.
Tom McClusky, a veteran pro-life advocate and CatholicVotes director of government affairs, previously told the Daily Signal that the administration may have been compelled to release the funds because it didnt have legal jurisdiction to stop them in the first place. HHS had blocked the money before amending 42 U.S. Code Part 300, which governs family planning grants, leaving the agency vulnerable in court.
They were virtually certain to lose the lawsuit, forcing them to repay the full amount plus interest and cover attorneys fees, McClusky said. Even worse, continuing the litigation would have entangled any future funding cutswhich are highly likely under the new regulations in prolonged court battles before an unsympathetic judge, he added.
President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Caller they were not informed of the decision to restore the grants to Planned Parenthood. I dont know anything about that, Trump said, before deferring to Kennedy, who likewise responded, I havent heard that, underscoring internal tensions over bureaucratic decisions that appear to undercut the administrations pro-life agenda.
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