<\/p>\n
A Barack Obama-appointed judge partially blocked a Trump administration effort to curb Planned Parenthood funding in a teen pregnancy prevention program.\n<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia on Wednesday also called the administration\u2019s promotion of abstinence-only education a means to \u201cdefy social reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program funded about 50 organizations and included\u00a0grants to affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the nation\u2019s largest abortion provider, as well as local government entities.\n<\/p>\n
As the Daily Signal\u00a0first reported, the Department of Health and Human Services in June sent letters to grant recipients, determining that many of them violated the law by using curricula that are \u201cmedically inaccurate,\u201d \u201cage-inappropriate,\u201d and \u201csexually explicit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The agency sought to require grantees to use an abstinence-based curriculum, but Cooper said the notice of funding opportunities \u201cacknowledge a near-absence of evidence on \u2018body literacy\u2019 approaches to pregnancy prevention.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd an educational initiative that counsels teens on how to avoid pregnancy without discussing the realities of unprotected intercourse and its alternatives would seem to defy social reality, common sense, and scientific evidence alike,\u201d Cooper wrote in the case of Hennepin County, Minnesota, et al. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.\n<\/p>\n
Cooper granted in part a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration\u2019s attempt to cut funding to the groups.\n<\/p>\n
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Planned Parenthood of the Heartland; the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States; Hennepin County, Minnesota; and King County, Washington. The plaintiffs asserted that the Department of Health and Human Services issued new funding criteria and then abruptly canceled the vast majority of active awards days later.\n<\/p>\n
The judge found that the agency couldn\u2019t lawfully impose criteria on grant recipients that Congress did not intend when creating the program in 2009.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the current administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (\u2018HHS\u2019) has a different take on teen pregnancy,\u201d Cooper\u2019s opinion stated.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn its view, the money Congress has appropriated for teen pregnancy prevention should be used only for programs that promote abstinence and \u2018body literacy,\u2019 a nebulous concept that appears to elevate fertility and marital procreation over well-tested forms of contraception and pregnancy prevention,\u201d Cooper said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agency also seeks to bar grant recipients from encouraging or \u2018normalizing\u2019 teen sexual activity, including through \u2018sexually explicit\u2019 content and discussion.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The judge went on to note, \u201cIf HHS\u2019s new funding notice forbids even the discussion of sexual activity by minors, one wonders how an awardee could possibly address the topic of teen pregnancy and related sexual risk behaviors, let alone work to prevent them as the appropriations act necessitates.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Planned Parenthood celebrated the judge\u2019s ruling.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery person deserves access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their lives, bodies, and futures, including America\u2019s youth,\u201d said Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, in a\u00a0public statement.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s decision reaffirms the value of trusted, evidence-based education programs that help youth make informed choices and plan for their futures,\u201d Richardson added. \u201cAttacks on the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program not only put young people at risk, they also risk increasing costs for taxpayers. No one benefits from these politically motivated attacks. It\u2019s time for them to end.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Editors Note:\u00a0<\/em>\n<\/p>\n Proverbs 22:6 commands us:\u00a0\u201cTrain up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.\u201d\u00a0That training belongs first to parents, families, and the church, not to federally funded curricula rooted in a worldview that celebrates what God calls sin.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n This is not the time for silence. It is the time to intercede.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n Pray that God would grant wisdom to the administration as it appeals this ruling. Pray for protection over the hearts and minds of America\u2019s youth. Pray that the church would rise up and reclaim its God-given role in shaping the next generation, and that no court order would silence the truth of His Word.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n This article was originally published at the Daily Caller. Photo Credit: Robin Marty \u2013 IMG_6313, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=78851961.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Barack Obama-appointed judge partially blocked a Trump administration effort to curb Planned Parenthood funding in a teen pregnancy prevention program. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia on Wednesday also called the administration\u2019s promotion of abstinence-only education a means to \u201cdefy social reality.\u201d Get involved in state-level prayer with IFA. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[10544,1781,3774,3759,1353,1479,1996,1995,2534,10543,193,174],"class_list":["post-31663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-affiliates","tag-blocks","tag-effort","tag-funds","tag-judge","tag-obama","tag-parenthood","tag-planned","tag-pregnancy","tag-redirect","tag-teen","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}