As some pro-lifers expressed outrage over the Trump administration restoring family planning funding to Planned Parenthood, other pro-life voices say there’s more to the move than meets the eye.
Politico reported that the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday dropped its lawsuit against the administration after the Department of Health and Human Services quietly released tens of millions in Title X family planning funds to Planned Parenthood and other clinics.
The move sparked widespread outrage from pro-life conservatives.
The ACLU, joined by The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, had sued the administration over what they called “unlawful” withholding of more than $65 million in Title X grants to clinics.
But the agency may have had no choice but to restore funding, according to Tom McClusky, a veteran pro-life operative and director of government affairs at CatholicVote.
The agency withheld the funds before amending 42 U.S. Code Part 300, a rule which governs family planning grants.
“They were virtually certain to lose the lawsuit, forcing them to repay the full amount plus interest and cover attorneys’ fees,” McClusky told The Daily Signal.
“Even worse, continuing the litigation would have entangled any future funding cuts—which are highly likely under the new regulations—in prolonged court battles before an unsympathetic judge.”
A former senior Trump administration official told The Daily Signal the administration will now be in a better position to defund Planned Parenthood.
“HHS was caught in a tough spot because the judge was almost certainly going to rule against them and they would have had to restore the funding under Biden era rules, possibly with interest and attorneys fees on top for Planned Parenthood,” the former official said.
“With the case dismissed, the administration has far greater ability to cut Planned Parenthood funds under Trump era rules and that will be the true test of the president’s promise to end taxpayer funding of the abortion industry.”
However, McClusky said none of this would have happened if the administration had restored the Protect Life Rule, promulgated during the president’s first term and rescinded by the Biden administration.
That rule provided that a counselor in a Title X project could “neither refer for, nor encourage, abortion.” The second Trump administration has not reinstated it.
Ethics and Public Policy Center family policy scholar Patrick Brown said there have been examples of pro-life betrayals under the Trump administration, such as the lack of action on the abortion pill, but this move is not one of them.
If HHS hadn’t restored the funding, “Planned Parenthood would have had a much stronger legal case. And the concern there is, not only would they win this one, but it could make future litigation harder to to win,” Brown said.
Last March, HHS informed nine health care providers that it would withhold Title X funding due to “possible violations” of Trump’s executive orders, including one prohibiting groups receiving federal funding from having diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Planned Parenthood published a memo Nov. 12 saying that since the beginning of 2025, “nearly 50 Planned Parenthood health centers have been forced to close following the loss of Title X funds and Medicaid reimbursements.”
The “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” removed Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.
Hannah Anderson, former deputy chief of staff for policy at HHS, said she is confident that the Trump administration will do “whatever they need to do, and can do to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars aren’t going to these clinics.”
“I think it is absolutely worth it for the federal government to say you have to play by the new rules on DEI and transgenderism, and they’ll either comply or not, and the courts will decide one way or the other,” Anderson, who is now senior director of policy at America First Policy Institute, told The Daily Signal. “But yes, we should be enforcing the rules equally on these facilities.”
The White House and Health and Human Services Department declined to comment for the story.