Supreme Court declines to block Biden family planning rules in Oklahoma

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Oklahoma's bid to claw back millions in federal family planning grants that the Biden administration had rescinded over the state’s refusal to provide information about abortion to patients who request it.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented, saying they would have granted the state's application for relief.

The move continues the court's trend since its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 to sidestep major abortion questions, including narrow, procedural decisions this past term on abortion pills and emergency abortions that avoided the merits of both cases.

The court's decision to deny Oklahoma's injunction request will not end the current battle over the Title X family planning program, which is playing out in multiple federal courts. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a similar lawsuit from Tennessee last week, but that case is expected to continue, along with a multi-state lawsuit led by Ohio seeking to reinstate Trump-era rules that prohibited Title X grantees from discussing abortion or offering referrals.

Title X clinics provide contraception, STD testing, prenatal care and other services to millions of low-income people. Under rules the Biden administration finalized in 2021 , clinics that get Title X funding are required to offer non-directive counseling for pregnant patients about all their options, including abortion — and that rule remains in place even if the state has banned the procedure. Title X funds may not be used for abortion services.

Oklahoma sued the administration in 2023 after it lost roughly $4.5 million in annual Title X funds for refusing to comply with the abortion counseling and referral requirements. The state argued that it should not have to follow those rules because they are regulations created by HHS, not a statute passed by Congress. The state’s Republican attorney general also argued that even requiring clinics offer patients a national hotline number to obtain information about making an abortion appointment out of state violates its medical providers’ rights under the Weldon Amendment — a federal budget rider that bars discrimination against health care workers who refuse to provide or refer for abortions.

Both a federal district court in Oklahoma and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected these claims earlier this year, saying the state is not entitled to Title X funding if it knowingly violates the program’s requirements. Oklahoma submitted an emergency request in early August, directed to Justice Neil Gorsuch, asking for the Supreme Court to intervene and force HHS to dispense the blocked funding.

The Biden administration has already redistributed the Title X funding that had been going to Oklahoma’s health department to independent providers who have agreed to abide by the abortion referral requirements — Caring Hands Health Care Centers, Missouri Family Health Council and Community Health Connection.