WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Oklahoma’s emergency appeal to reinstate a $4.5 million grant for family planning services in an ongoing dispute over the state’s refusal to refer pregnant women to a national helpline that provides information on abortion and other options.
The brief order does not detail the court’s reasoning, as is typically the case, but indicates that three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — would have sided with Oklahoma.
Lower courts have ruled that the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to deprive Oklahoma of funds did not violate federal law.
The case arises from a dispute over State Abortion Restrictions and Federal Subsidies provided under a family planning program known as Title X, which has only intensified since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and many Republican-led states have banned abortion.
Clinics cannot use federal Planned Parenthood money to fund abortions, but they must provide information about abortions at the patient’s request under federal regulations. The Oklahoma attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Oklahoma argues that it cannot comply with the requirement to provide abortion counseling and referrals because the state’s abortion ban makes it a crime for “any person who counsels or procures an abortion for a woman.”
The administration said it had proposed an arrangement that would refer patients to the national helpline, but the state rejected the proposal as insufficient. The federal government then cut the state’s Title X funds.
In 2021, the Biden administration reversed a ban on abortion referrals by clinics that accept Title X funds. The restriction was originally enacted under the Donald Trump administration in 2019, but the policy has swung back and forth for years, depending on who is in the White House.
Tennessee continues a similar trial That case remains before the lower courts. Oklahoma and 10 other states have also launched another challenge to the federal regulation.
Oklahoma says it distributes the money to about 70 city and county health departments for family planning, infertility assistance and adolescent services. For rural communities in particular, government-run health facilities can be “the only access points for essential preventive services for dozens or hundreds of miles,” Oklahoma said in its Supreme Court filing.
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Associated Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
