The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “quietly released” tens of millions of dollars in previously frozen Title X family planning funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other abortion facilities in December, Politico reported Jan. 13.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the Trump administration in April 2025 froze roughly $27.5 million in federal family planning grants to organizations, including Planned Parenthood, while it reviewed whether recipients had used taxpayer funds to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
According to Politico, the funds were restored in December 2025, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to drop a lawsuit seeking to compel their release. The case was brought by ACLU on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and argued the grants were illegally withheld, according to an ACLU press release. The suit was voluntarily dismissed Jan. 12.
In a Dec. 19 court document cited by Politico, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia said the agency’s review of potential DEI-related spending violations was complete, “and all grants at issue for Plaintiff’s members have been restored.” She asked plaintiffs whether the case could be voluntarily dismissed “in light of the restoration of the remaining grants.”
One affiliate, Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU), confirmed in a Jan. 12 press release that it received $2 million in restored Title X funding on Jan. 9. The organization said the withholding of funds since April 2025 had contributed to the closure of two clinics in the state.
Title X is a federal program that subsidizes family planning services for low-income individuals and includes a “broad range of services related to achieving pregnancy, preventing pregnancy, and assisting women, men, and couples with achieving their desired number and spacing of children,” according to HHS. The program does not directly fund abortions, though pro-lifers argue it helps subsidize abortion providers’ operations.
The restored Title X grants represent only a portion of taxpayer funds Planned Parenthood receives each year. According to the group’s 2023-2024 annual report, it took in more than $700 million in taxpayer funds through reimbursements and grants during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to defend in court a provision of the Big Beautiful Bill Act that would block federal funding of abortion providers for one year. In December, a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed that provision to take effect while legal challenges proceed.
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