Tennessee Loses Bid for Family Planning Money With Abortion Rule

The US Health and Human Services Department doesn’t have to restore Tennessee’s Title X family planning grant money through at least the end of 2024, despite a state anti-abortion policy at odds with a federal health rule, while litigation over the dispute proceeds, the Sixth Circuit said Monday.

The state argued it didn’t have to comply with a federal condition that required service providers to refer pregnant patients for abortions, if asked. Tennessee is unlikely to win at trial on that argument, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said. The provision known as the abortion-referral rule probably ...