Supreme Court allows Biden administration to cut funding over Oklahoma abortion dispute

U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2024 / 13:32 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court this week declined to stop the Biden administration from stripping the state of Oklahoma of millions of dollars in federal funding in a dispute over an abortion directive from the federal government. 

The state had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in November 2023 claiming the Biden administration suspended millions of dollars in federal Title X funding over the state’s refusal to provide referrals for abortion as part of its family planning services. 

The Title X Family Planning Program, enacted in 1970, distributes federal grants to community clinics and health departments to provide contraception services and other family planning and health services. Federal law forbids Title X funding from being used to directly procure abortions. 

Oklahoma said the federal government had unlawfully stripped the state of about $4.5 million in funds after state officials would “not commit to providing referrals for abortion” in Oklahoma’s Title X programming.

A U.S. district court rejected the state’s request for an injunction against HHS. In a July decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld the lower court’s decision, agreeing that the government’s requirements did not violate the spending power of Congress.

On Tuesday the Supreme Court likewise declined Oklahoma’s request for an injunction. The unsigned order from the high court gave no reason for the rejection, though it noted that Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the application. 

Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, told CNA that the decision was “obviously disappointing” but that state Attorney General Gentner Drummond was “pleased that three Supreme Court justices were willing to step in and stop the Biden administration’s lawless overreach at this preliminary juncture.” 

“We will be exploring our options moving forward,” Bacharach said.

Drummond said last year that the Biden administration was “intent on punishing Oklahoma because we do not share its liberal philosophy.”

“It is patently discriminatory to deny Oklahoma these critical funds, particularly when federal law makes it clear that Title X cannot be used for abortion,” he said at the time.

“I will continue to fight against federal overreach in all forms,” the prosecutor added.

Oklahoma’s lawsuit had argued that the state “administered the Title X family planning program in Oklahoma for more than 40 years,” using the grants to “disperse funds through 68 county health departments, who provide critical public health services to rural and urban Oklahoma communities.”

Tennessee launched a similar lawsuit against the federal government last year; the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals similarly ruled against the state last month in that dispute.