A federal judge in Washington issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday blocking changes to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP). The ruling halts new requirements from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that mandated grant recipients focus on abstinence and "body literacy" while minimizing education on contraception.
The lawsuit was brought by several entities, including the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a Planned Parenthood chapter in Iowa and Nebraska, and the governments of Hennepin County, Minnesota, and King County, Washington. These groups sued after the administration abruptly cut their federal funding earlier this summer and introduced new criteria for future grants.
Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that while the administration can formulate its own policy views, it cannot impose grant conditions that were not intended by Congress or that remain unexplained under the Administrative Procedure Act. However, the judge declined to restore tens of millions of dollars in funding that had already been cut in June, stating he was uncertain if he possessed the legal authority to do so.
In his ruling, Judge Cooper described the administration's new "body literacy" requirement as a "nebulous concept" that appeared to prioritize fertility over pregnancy prevention. The plaintiffs argued that the administration was unlawfully forcing them to use curricula that were not evidence-based and provided medically inaccurate information regarding contraception.
For students and teenagers in these districts, the concrete change will be a continued lack of access to programs that were defunded earlier this summer. Because the judge did not restore the lost millions, organizations that lost their primary source of federal support may be unable to maintain their current staffing or class schedules. Educators and health advocates expressed concern that if the new policies are eventually upheld, it could reverse trends in the reduction of unintended pregnancies among minors, which have seen significant decreases in recent decades.
The ruling sets a temporary legal precedent regarding the Executive Branch's ability to shift the focus of programs funded by Congress from evidence-based models to specific ideological frameworks. The next phase of the litigation involves both parties proposing a schedule for future proceedings. The administration and the challengers must submit their proposed schedule for next steps by Sept. 1. The HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment following the decision.