ACLU drops lawsuit after HHS restored some funding to Planned Parenthood

The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration after the Department of Health and Human Services quietly restored millions of dollars in funds to Planned Parenthood after freezing tens of millions in Title X family planning funds.

Multiple health clinics had been notified last spring of “possible violations” of federal civil rights law and President Trump’s executive orders, including his ban on the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

The health care providers, including nine Planned Parenthood state affiliates, were told that their funding would be “temporarily withheld.”

Larger Planned Parenthood funding cuts, part of Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, are still pending due to court challenges. In early December, a federal judge put a hold on part of the law that ordered state Medicaid programs to stop doing business with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

Funds to Planned Parenthood were reinstated in December.

In a Tuesday press conference held on Capitol Hill, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said that there “appears to be more to that story.”

When asked about his reaction to the Trump administration restoring Planned Parenthood funding, he said that he is “waiting to pass judgment on that.”

“There appears to be more to that story than what we’re seeing in the press,” he said, adding that there is some “legal maneuvering there that would put the administration in a stronger position.”

But restoring the funding will spotlight detractors who are critical of the administration’s move.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America called on the administration to reinstate the Protect Life Rule from the president’s first term in office, which restricted abortion providers from receiving Title X funds.

“The Protect Life Rule from the 1st Trump admin stopped Big Abortion businesses from using Title X taxpayer $$ as a slush fund. Biden canceled it,” the organization said on social media Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in April 2025, challenged HHS’ “illegal withholding” of 22 federal Title X grants, which it said affected approximately 865 family planning service sites.

“When the Trump administration withheld critical Title X family planning funding, it blatantly violated federal law and left hundreds of sites unable to provide Title X-funded services,” Brigitte Amiri, the ACLU’s deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a Tuesday statement. 

Fortunately, the grants have been restored, Ms. Amiri said, “but we know that the Trump administration will continue to attack reproductive freedom, and the ACLU will be ready to use every lever we have to fight those attacks and defend the Title X program.”