The day after the Department of Health and Human Services lost the first of five lawsuits challenging its termination of Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants, Trump Administration officials attempted to circumvent the Court’s ruling by issuing new criteria for awarding those grants. Under the new criteria, the Department would have unlawfully funded untested, abstinence-only content, rather than programs shown to be effective through rigorous evaluation, in violation of Congress’s clear intent to fund only programs scientifically proven to work. We filed suit on behalf of Multnomah County, Oregon.

The Department’s unlawful funding criteria would have required young people to receive untested sexual education, rather than evidence-based materials. By requiring grantees to incorporate unproven, abstinence-only approaches into every component of their programs, the Department attempted to dictate a single, untested approach to teen pregnancy prevention that would disadvantage grantees that cannot prioritize abstinence-only education under state law or that rely on scientifically proven methods of pregnancy prevention. In short, the Department’s actions elevated ideology over science.

We filed suit on behalf of Multnomah County, alleging that HHS flouted Congressional mandates and politicized Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants. Multnomah County was awarded a grant in 2015 and used $1.25 million per year to educate 15,000 teens, train 107 teachers, and engage 329 parents and caregivers in 32 middle and high schools across the county. We argued that the Department’s actions were taken ultra vires and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Purpose Statute, and the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution, and asked the Court to vacate the new funding criteria.

The Court agreed with us that the Department’s actions were unlawful and vacated the criteria. The government dropped its appeal, delivering a complete victory for Multnomah County.