Attorney General Aaron M. Frey today joined a coalition of 22 other states in suing to block a new federal policy that threatens to strip federal family planning funding from states and providers unless they meet a vareity of unlawful conditions.  The lawsuit, filed today in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, challenges new conditions on Title X funds, which support reproductive health care, family planning, cancer screenings and other critical preventive care for millions of Americans nationwide.  The new conditions wlll penalize states and provders that refuse to abandon nondiscrimination initiatives or conform their Title X programs to the administration’s ideological vision of family planning.  The states are askig the court to block the unlawful and discriminatory conditions and protect  Americans’ access to affordable, high-quality health care.

“As access to health insurance is becoming increasingl prohibitive, Title X provides critical health care services to low-income Mainers across the state every day,” said Attorney General Frey.  “The federal government is waging an ideological attack on Title X funding through these conditions.  This suit will ensure Title X funds continue to flow as directed by Congress without unlawful interference by the President.”

Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated specifically to family planning and related preventive health services.  For more than 50 years, Title X has helped millions of low-income patients access contraception, cancer screenings, sexually transitted infection testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling and other preventive health care.

The coalition is asking the court to declare the admiistration’s new political condiions unlawful, block HHS from enforcing them and preserve access to Title X fundig for state health agencies and other qualified providers under the program’s exsting, longstanding rules.