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a federal judge in oregon President Donald is blocked trumpThe administration has banned curriculum that mentions different gender identities from funding sex education.
US District Judge Ann Aiken issued a preliminary injunction on Monday in a lawsuit filed against Department of Health and Human Services by 16 states and District of ColumbiaWhich argued that drawing such funds violated the separation of powers and federal law.
The complaint filed last month said the department is attempting to force states to “rewrite the sexual health curriculum to erase entire categories of students.” It describes the action as “the latest effort by the current administration to target and harm transgender and gender-diverse youth.” The administration said in court filings that Health and Human Services has the authority to impose conditions for receiving grant funding.
Aiken wrote that the department “provides no evidence that it made factual findings or considered the statutory purposes and expressed requirements, relevant data, applicable sex-discrimination laws, and its own regulations.” The judge said the department “also failed to show that the new grant conditions are reasonable.”
The department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment, but said in a previous statement after the complaint was filed that it is “committed to its mission to remove bigoted gender and DEI ideologies from federal programs,” referring to initiatives that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Minnesota Attorney General keith ellisonwhose state co-led the lawsuit with Oregon and Washington, welcomed the ruling and said he was “pleased to have funding protected for vital health education programs.”
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, his administration has sought to prevent people from identifying only as male or female.
Health department went away after completing two programs
The Department of Health wants to ban the inclusion of what it describes as “gender ideology” in lessons funded by the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PrEP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Prevention Education Program. Federal grants are used to teach about abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
The plaintiffs say the grant conditions the department is seeking to impose violate federal law, the separation of powers, and Congress’s spending power. They also argued that losing the money would harm state programs, making them less effective at providing sex education, including to youth at high risk of becoming pregnant or contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
According to the complaint, the termination of funding under two federal grant programs could result in a loss of at least $35 million to the plaintiff states.
In court filings, the administration said agencies have the authority to enforce the terms of grants and argued that claims against the federal government over contracts including grants should be heard by a separate court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
According to the complaint, in April, the Health Department asked plaintiff states to share the curriculum and materials used for lessons funded by the PREP grants. In a letter, the department said it was conducting a “medical accuracy review.”
In August, the department issued new conditions prohibiting grant recipients from “incorporating gender ideology into any program or service funded by this award.” That month, it warned that they had 60 days to change the text or lose their PREP grant; California was warned in advance, and its $12 million grant was taken away on August 21.
At the center of some legal debate in the case is the definition of “medically accurate”. Under federal law, curriculum under both programs must be “medically accurate and complete.”
“The agency’s ban on ‘gender ideology’ ensures that federal funds support curriculum rooted in biological and medical science rather than controversial socio-political principles regarding gender identity,” the administration said in court filings.
The plaintiffs argued that their programs are medically accurate and presented written declarations from health experts such as Kate Millington, a pediatric endocrinologist and associate professor of pediatrics at Brown University.
Millington said, “To say that gender is binary and that other non-binary gender identities do not exist is not consistent with the medical and scientific understanding of gender identity.”
In court filings, Minnesota officials shared examples of content that Health and Human Services had flagged for removal, such as mentions of different pronouns in the curriculum and how some people identify with a gender that is different from their biological sex.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown previously said the department had threatened to take action if his state did not remove words from high school curriculum that say: “People of all sexual orientations and gender identities need to know how to prevent pregnancy and STIs, either for themselves or to help a friend.”
The other plaintiffs are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. All plaintiff states have Democratic governors.