The Trump Administration has partially restored federal family planning grants for Oklahoma, effectively ending a legal dispute pending before the U.S. Supreme Court that questioned if the federal government could require abortion referrals for pregnant women seeking options about their reproductive health.
The Justice Department filed a notice with the high court on Tuesday saying it had restored grants to Oklahoma and Tennessee, which also had its Title X family planning grants pulled by the Biden administration over abortion referrals upon request.
Oklahoma’s appeals from federal district and appellate courts were pending review, or cert, before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The lack of prospective significance of this case — both for the parties here and more broadly — further militates in favor of denying certiorari,” said the April 15 letter from U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, the federal government’s top attorney before the Supreme Court.
Attached to the letter were grant notifications from the federal Department of Health and Human Services notifying the Oklahoma State Department of Health that it would receive almost $2 million in Title X grants in the next year. The previously pulled grants were from the last year of a three-year federal funding cycle.
The grants cover pregnancy testing, cancer screenings, contraceptives, reproductive health counseling and other services. They help 25,000 Oklahomans per year and are especially important at county health departments in rural areas. Oklahoma has been receiving Title X family planning grants from the federal government for more than 50 years.
“We are appreciative of all that has been involved in restoring Oklahoma’s long-standing and successful Title X grant, and look forward to continuing these important services throughout the state as we have done for over 50 years,” said Erica Rankin, spokeswoman for the state Health Department.
Rankin said the agency has been notified of the partial grant award, but is still waiting to hear what the total award might be from the federal government for those family planning services.
In legal filings, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued the Biden administration was unduly punishing the state when it discontinued the grant in 2023. The state said it could no longer publicize an abortion referral hotline after Oklahoma’s trigger law made abortion illegal in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022.
“We are pleased that the Trump administration has indicated it will restore this important funding for healthcare services,” Phil Bacharach, Drummond’s spokesman, said on Tuesday. “We look forward to working with HHS for a final resolution to the matter.”
The Oklahoma grant restoration comes as the federal government has pulled $11 billion in federal public health grants from various COVID-19 pandemic relief programs.
Oklahoma’s Division of Government Efficiency later identified more than $157 million in 15 federal public health grants as opportunities for savings. Those federal public health dollars covered programs ranging from infectious disease surveillance and wastewater testing to data collection and pathogen tracking.
Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.
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