HHS policy on teen pregnancy grants struck down after Planned Parenthood challenge

By Diana Novak Jones

Oct 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday from enforcing a policy that would have required Planned Parenthood and other recipients of federal grants for teen pregnancy prevention to revise their programs to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and transgender issues.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., sided with a group of Planned Parenthood affiliates that had challenged the policy, saying it is too vague and that HHS failed to cite sufficient explanation for its implementation. She granted the Planned Parenthood affiliates’ motion for summary judgment and vacated the policy notice.

Representatives for Planned Parenthood of New York, which led the challenge, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for HHS said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

HHS announced the policy on July 1 in a notice to recipients of Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants, which are taken from a pool of more than $100 million that Congress has set aside for public and private organizations running programs meant to reduce teen pregnancy.

In the guidance, HHS said that grant recipients must ensure that the curricula in their teen pregnancy programs do not promote “ideological content” about gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a statement announcing the policy, HHS said it “ensures that taxpayer dollars no longer support content that undermines parental rights, promotes radical gender ideology, or exposes children to sexually explicit material under the banner of public health.”

Planned Parenthood of New York and other Planned Parenthood affiliates, which receive the teen pregnancy prevention grants, sued to block the guidance in July, after they were approved to receive the funding. The lawsuit claimed the groups could not draw down their funds without certifying compliance with the policy, which they said would require them to change their programming in a way that would make it ineffective.

The groups were forced to either draw down the funds and risk enforcement action from HHS, which could require them to pay the funds back or lose them, or not use them at all, they said. The groups chose not to use the funds during the litigation, according to court records.

HHS countered that the policy hadn't been enforced yet, so it was too early for it to be challenged. The agency also argued that the policy didn't include concrete legal consequences for violations, so it's not a binding rule subject to evaluation under the Administrative Procedure Act.

In her ruling on Tuesday, Howell said the organizations had suffered harm through their inability to access the funding. She struck down the policy, finding it violated the APA by imposing vague new standards on grant recipients and putting them at risk of arbitrary enforcement.

HHS didn’t submit declarations, memoranda, email exchanges or other evidence of how it decided to implement the policy, and the policy itself doesn’t explain how grant recipients are supposed to achieve compliance, Howell said.

The case is Planned Parenthood of New York v. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:25-cv-02453.

For Planned Parenthood of New York: Andrew Tutt of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer

For HHS: Michael Gerardi of the U.S. Department of Justice