Organizations working to curb teen pregnancy just scored a big win and took an ominous loss on the same day.
On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s plans to enforce politically loaded new requirements for organizations to qualify for congressionally authorized funds meant to deter teen pregnancy.
But even if that ruling holds up, such groups are likely to be looking at more hurdles in the form of a Trump nominee who believes deterring teen pregnancies falls entirely on parents and who was just installed to help run the agency that distributes those funds.
In the court case, Planned Parenthood affiliates in California, Iowa and New York sued to stop the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing rules the agency set out in July that threatened to withhold funds from organizations that promote “radical gender ideology” and “anti-American ideologies such as discriminatory equity ideology.”
Basically, this was the Trump administration threatening to withhold funds meant to deter teen pregnancy unless the organizations receiving them adhered to the president’s bigoted ideological dictates seeking to bar discussions on LGBTQ people and the concept of diversity.
In blocking the new policy, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell called almost all of the new requirements “fatally vague,” and said the administration left grant recipients “with the impossible task of divining the connection HHS saw between the executive branch priority and teen pregnancy prevention.”
She also said the rule change was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.”
HHS told MSNBC it doesn’t comment on litigation and referred to a previous statement that said the agency “is taking decisive action to end the ideological overreach that has infiltrated federally funded sex education programs for years.” The Trump administration’s unnerving approach to teen pregnancy seemed to come into view earlier this year with the president’s nomination of Dr. Brian Christine as assistant secretary of Health and Human Services. During his confirmation hearing, Christine — an Alabama urologist who has espoused anti-trans views — refused to support anti-teen pregnancy programs and said combating teen pregnancy falls under the “purview of parents.” Christine was among dozens of Trump nominees whom Republicans in the Senate confirmed in a vote Tuesday. So on one hand, Howell’s ruling appears to afford anti-teen pregnancy organizations some breathing room to carry out their business without having to adhere to the dictates Trump’s administration laid out in July. On the other hand, Christine’s confirmation suggests these organizations may face more roadblocks in the future.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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