Trump administration restores federal funding for family planning after
ACLU lawsuit
[January 15, 2026]
By KIMBERLEE KRUESI
Reproductive rights advocates say they have dropped a legal challenge
against the Trump administration for withholding millions of dollars of
federal funding for family planning, contraception and other services
after officials agreed to restore the money.
Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services after federal officials alerted 16
organizations, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, that the
department was pausing $27.5 million to investigate whether they’re
complying with the law.
At the time, HHS didn't specify which laws or executive orders the
groups were suspected of violating. However, in a Dec. 19 letter to the
organizations, HHS officials cited “federal civil rights laws” and that
the groups had taken actions to show they were in compliance.
The letter reminded the organizations of their “ongoing obligation to
comply with all terms of the award, including by not engaging in any
unlawful diversity, equity or inclusion-related discrimination in
violation of such laws.”
The ACLU then filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 13.
“We should never have had to sue to protect essential health care like
cancer screenings, STI tests, and birth control,” said Arthur Spitzer,
senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “Restoring
funding is a victory, but the larger fight to protect everyone’s
reproductive freedom continues.”
An email seeking comment to HHS was sent on Wednesday.
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A Planned Parenthood sign is displayed outside a facility in Austin,
Texas, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
 Since taking office, Trump has
issued executive orders targeting programs that consider race in any
way, some of which have been put on hold by judges.
Republicans have long railed against the hundreds millions of
dollars that flow every year under the Title X program to Planned
Parenthood and its clinics, which offer abortions but also birth
control, cancer and disease screenings, among other things. The
program provides services mainly to low-income women, many of them
from minority communities. Federal law prohibits taxpayer dollars
from paying for most abortions.
According to the ACLU, when HHS withheld 22 federal Title X grants
last spring, 865 family planning service sites were unable to
provide services to an estimated 842,000 patients across nearly two
dozen states.
Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project
at the ACLU, said in a statement that while funding has been
restored, "we know that the Trump administration will continue to
attack reproductive freedom, and the ACLU will be ready to use every
lever we have to fight those attacks and defend the Title X
program.”
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