Key Points:
- New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport joined a multistate lawsuit challenging new Trump administration conditions on Title X grants.
- The states argue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services imposed requirements that conflict with federal law and existing Title X regulations.
- The lawsuit seeks to block the new conditions before they affect funding for contraception, cancer screenings, STI testing and other preventive health services.
TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey is suing the Trump administration over new conditions attached to federal Title X funding, arguing the requirements could jeopardize money used to provide family-planning and preventive health services to low-income patients.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport joined a coalition of 23 states in filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The challenge targets conditions announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the next five-year Title X grant cycle.
“The most intimate, consequential, healthcare decisions of your life should not be dictated by politics, or by how much money you have in your wallet,” Davenport said. “The Trump Administration is illegally intruding into the lives of New Jersey families in ways that will make healthcare even more expensive. We cannot accept that.”
New Jersey Challenges Conditions Attached to Title X Grants
Title X is the federal government’s grant program specifically dedicated to family planning and related preventive health services. The program helps fund contraception, cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling, and other services.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, HHS published a funding notice in July requiring applicants to align their programs with a new set of administration priorities to receive or retain federal money.
The lawsuit alleges those conditions could pressure providers to discourage birth control and contraception, change counseling practices involving marriage and parenthood, and alter policies affecting transgender and other LGBTQ+ patients. Those descriptions are allegations made by the states in their legal challenge, and the court has not yet ruled on their claims.
The coalition contends the requirements conflict with the law governing Title X and federal regulations requiring providers to offer a broad range of contraceptive methods and patient-centered counseling.
States Ask Federal Court to Block HHS Policy
The lawsuit also raises a procedural challenge. The states contend HHS adopted the requirements without the notice-and-comment process required by the Administrative Procedure Act and argue some conditions are too vague for providers to know what constitutes compliance.
New Jersey and the other plaintiffs want the federal court to declare the conditions unlawful and prevent HHS from enforcing them. They are also seeking to preserve Title X funding under the program’s existing rules while the dispute proceeds.
New York, Maryland and Massachusetts are leading the case. Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin also joined, along with the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
For New Jersey residents, the immediate issue is whether the disputed federal conditions will be allowed to govern the next Title X funding cycle. The complaint asks the federal court to stop enforcement of those requirements before providers risk losing grants for refusing to comply.
Sources: New Jersey Office of the Attorney General press release; multistate federal complaint referenced by the Attorney General’s Office.
