Attorney General Clark Challenges Title X Funding Conditions

Attorney General Clark today joined a coalition of 22 other states in suing to block a new federal policy that threatens to strip federal family planning funding from states and providers unless they meet a variety of unlawful conditions. The lawsuit, filed today in federal court, challenges new conditions on Title X funds, which support reproductive health care, family planning, cancer screenings, and other critical preventive care for millions of Americans nationwide. The new conditions will penalize states and providers that refuse to conform their Title X programs to the administration's ideological vision of family planning. The states are asking the court to block the unlawful and discriminatory conditions and protect Americans' access to affordable, high-quality health care.

"Political ideology has no place in health care," said Attorney General Clark. "I will keep standing up for Vermonters' reproductive rights, including their ability to access inclusive, patient-centered health care and family planning services."

Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated specifically to family planning and related preventive health services. For more than 50 years, Title X has helped millions of low-income patients access contraception, cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling, and other preventive health care.

In July, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a new funding notice for the next five-year grant cycle that, for the first time, requires applicants to align their programs with a sweeping set of political priorities as a condition of receiving or keeping federal funds. The priorities include eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, excluding and stigmatizing transgender people, discouraging the use of contraception in favor of natural family planning, requiring clinics to counsel all patients toward marriage and parenthood, and complying with unrelated political priorities like "ending crime and disorder on America's streets." Providers who don't comply risk losing their funding altogether.

Vermont's Title X program receives approximately $790,000 in federal funds each year, $760,000 of which goes to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, who operate six health centers around Vermont. These centers provided nearly 10,000 Vermonters with important family planning and related services last calendar year.

Attorney General Clark and the coalition argue that the new HHS conditions conflict with Title X's governing statute and regulations, which require providers to offer a broad range of contraceptive methods, provide nondirective counseling, and serve all patients, including LGBTQ+ individuals, in an inclusive and nondiscriminatory manner. The states also argue that HHS unlawfully imposed the new conditions without the notice-and-comment process required under the Administrative Procedure Act. Additionally, the coalition argues that the conditions are so vague that providers cannot reasonably determine what compliance requires, in violation of the Constitution's Spending Clause, which limits the government's ability to attach unclear or unrelated strings to federal funding.

The coalition is asking the court to declare the administration's new political conditions unlawful, block HHS from enforcing them, and preserve access to Title X funding for state health agencies and other qualified providers under the program's existing, longstanding rules.

Joining Attorney General Clark in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Today's lawsuit is the 65th case Attorney General Clark has brought against the Trump Administration since President Trump took office in January 2025. For more information on actions taken by the Attorney General on behalf of Vermonters, visit our website.

Contact: Haley Sommer, Senior Advisor to the Attorney General, 802-828-3171