Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Attempt to Impose Unlawful Conditions on Title X Family Planning Funds

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general and two governors in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over recent efforts to upend the Title X federal family planning program. For over 50 years, the Title X program has provided access to effective contraceptive methods, cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted illnesses, and other preventive services through a nationwide network of clinics that are the only source of healthcare for millions of people. Earlier this summer, the Trump Administration issued its Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) which outlined what Title X grantees must do to obtain funding. The Trump NOFO transforms this crucial program by requiring all Title X grantees to modify their existing programs to align with a number of political priorities including anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion, anti-gender ideology, and directive counseling. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the NOFO’s provisions undercut the purpose of Title X and violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) along with the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Title X is about making family planning and reproductive care accessible to all, but President Trump is trying to use ideologically driven conditions to unravel this historically bipartisan safety net and fashion it into a political bludgeon,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Conditioning millions of dollars in federal funding doesn’t make America healthier, it makes care harder. That’s why we’re taking the Trump Administration to court, to safeguard access to this critical care for everyone — including the over 460,000 individuals in California who rely on Title X for healthcare services. Let me be clear: California will remain ironclad in protecting reproductive care.”   

BACKGROUND

Title X enjoys bipartisan support, and Congress has funded it continuously for over 50 years. It is the only federal funding stream dedicated specifically to supporting family planning methods and services, such as contraception, infertility services, access to birth control, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted illnesses, and cancer screenings. These services have been critical in helping millions of people, especially low-income women, control their own reproductive decision-making and improve their social and economic futures. For every dollar invested in publicly funded family planning programs like Title X, federal and state governments save taxpayer funds by preventing unintended pregnancies, adverse birth effects, sexually transmitted illnesses, and cervical cancer. California has the largest Title X program in the nation, providing services to over 460,000 residents, but the imposition of the Trump Administration’s NOFO now leaves communities at risk of losing funds for quality, evidence-based family planning services. 

The new guidelines impose requirements on the grantees themselves — including grantees in California — forcing them to align with a number of Trump Administration priorities that conflict with Title X’s intent. Those priorities include ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, excluding and stigmatizing transgender individuals, targeting providers of gender-affirming care, elevating natural family planning over other forms of birth control, and displacing patient-directed family planning. Several aspects of the NOFO would turn the Title X program on its head. For instance, Trump’s new Title X program would require all patients be counseled towards marriage and parenthood. Grantees will also be assessed for demonstrations of ongoing compliance with the Administration’s priorities and require demonstrations of ongoing compliance, further threatening whether states and other grantees will be able to receive funding.

In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the new conditions are: 

• Arbitrary and capricious in violation of the APA and conflict with Title X law and regulations as well as the congressional purpose underpinning Title X.
• In violation of the APA without observance of procedure required by law.
• Unconstitutionally vague and in violation of the Spending Clause because they do not give applicants fair notice of the conditions for receiving or maintaining Title X funding.

In filing this lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.