Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking a federal judge for a preliminary injunction that would force the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide funds from a Title X family planning grant to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
The Health Department had received the funding for more than 40 years until last May, when the federal agency suspended the $4.5 million grant over a dispute concerning federal rules for Title X. HHS argued that the state could not exclude information about pregnancy termination from the package of other information it was offering clients.
Since HHS suspended the grant, the state Health Department has used $4.5 million appropriated by the state Legislature to continue operating family planning services in Oklahoma.
Drummond sued HHS, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs Jessica Marcella and the HHS Office of Population Affairs in U.S. District Court in November, alleging HHS took millions in Title X money from Oklahoma and Tennessee and instead awarded it to groups that support abortion services. Drummond has said the HHS action penalizes the state for its anti-abortion stance.