The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) has, again, sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its Title X rules.

Key Takeaways:

• The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has sued the Department of Health and Human Services over its Title X regulations for Fiscal Year 2027.

• The new requirements include that participants "incorporate foundational body and health literacy" into reproductive health counseling, including "education on menstrual cycle physiology, hormonal health, male and female fertility awareness, and early indicators of reproductive disorders... that first emerge in adolescence."

• Planned Parenthood argues that the rules put its members at a "complete disadvantage."

The Details:

According to a press release from PPFA, the lawsuit challenges "the Trump-Vance administration's funding application for Title X, which attempts to illegally transform the Title X Family Planning Program into a vehicle for furthering the administration's political goals."

This most recent lawsuit is in response to guidelines issued by the HHS in April, stating that facilities that commit or refer for abortion would be ineligible to receive Title X funding for 2027. Other pro-abortion groups — the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and the Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania — filed a separate lawsuit against the HHS in June.

"None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning," the guidelines state. "The Hyde Amendment expressly prohibits the use of federal funds administered by HHS to pay for elective abortion." The notice continues (emphases added):

We expect recipients to demonstrate how their Title X projects maintain strict separation from prohibited activities and contribute to broader HHS efforts to safeguard life-affirming, lawful, and ethical program delivery. Key strategies include, but are not limited to, implementing robust financial and programmatic safeguards; providing clear guidance to staff and subrecipients on Hyde requirements; and establishing monitoring processes that ensure ongoing compliance among staff and subrecipients.

In addition, the guidelines state that due to the "growing infertility crisis," clinics approved for Title X funding "will be required to incorporate foundational body and health literacy into reproductive health counseling. This includes education on menstrual cycle physiology, hormonal health, male and female fertility awareness, and early indicators of reproductive disorders... that first emerge in adolescence."

The lawsuit argues that HHS's changes to Title X violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It claims that the new rules to qualify for Title X funding "no longer support the goals of the Title X program." The main reasons it offers are that the rules state that applicants must align with the ideas of “'[r]educing overmedicalization in health care' by promoting natural family-planning methods, contributing to agency efforts to 'safeguard lifeaffirming … program delivery,' counseling patients about 'marriage prior to childbearing,' and 'respecting biological reality'" and that this will put "PPFA's members at a complete disadvantage in the FY 2027 Title X grant cycle."

The Bottom Line:

Title X funding is a federal program that awards grants to organizations and health departments that provide family planning and preventative health care, including STI prevention, testing, and treatment, birth control, and certain cancer screenings. The funding is prohibited from being used to pay for abortions; however, when abortion organizations such as Planned Parenthood receive Title X funding, it opens up other available funding from other sources to be used to pay for abortions.