Federal judge: HHS can’t halt Obama-era sex education grant to Planned Parenthood

A Washington federal judge ruled this week that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is not allowed to terminate a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grant, which was set to extend to 2020, two years early. The lawsuit was filed by Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, and “was joined by Planned Parenthood affiliates in Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and Nebraska,” according to Courthouse News Service, arguing that early termination of the “research” from the program would cause “irreparable harm.” CNS also noted the judge’s remarks:

“The court finds that HHS arbitrarily and capriciously terminated the (teen pregnancy prevention) program,” Rice wrote. “The court determines that the public interest weighs in favor of (Planned Parenthood), as it would prevent harm to the community and prevent loss of data regarding the effectiveness of teen pregnancy prevention.”

“[S]ince the program’s inception in 2010, the teen birth rate in the United States has dropped by 41 percent,” the plaintiffs claimed in their lawsuit. But while Planned Parenthood tries to take credit for this, the truth is that as abortions have decreased nationally, Planned Parenthood has managed to increase its market share of abortions in the United States to nearly 35 percent. And while the organization continues to sneer at abstinence-based sex education, the CDC reports that teen sexual activity has decreased 12 percent over the past two decades.

Planned Parenthood is shrinking, but abortions still increase

And Valerie Huber, chief of staff for the Office of Assistant Secretary of Health, stated that the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program actually “normalizes teen sex” — something sadly predictable from an organization like Planned Parenthood, which has been known to give teens dangerous advice on sex.

In 2016, Live Action News noted that a five-year HHS study revealed that “in some cases, the federally-funded sex education programs helped contribute to an increase of pregnancy and sexual exploration in teenagers, while other programs didn’t impact behavior changes at all.” Among those who received grants for this failed sex education? Planned Parenthood.

Live Action News reported last year that U.S. and U.K. studies have both recently shown that sex education and birth control access don’t reduce teen pregnancy — and in fact, may have the opposite effect. “The public has been led to believe that providing sex education programs, as well as contraception, is the best way to reduce unwanted pregnancies, as well as the abortions that often follow,” wrote Live Action News’ Susan Michelle-Hanson. “But when these 149 UK regions cut funding for these programs, the results indicated the opposite.”