Federal judge rules #Trump's @HHS illegally ended funding for teen pregnancy prevention
Trump's Secretary Alex Azar has been a vocal critic of Obama policies. We can only hope that Trump will just drop his vile opposition to this funding cut.
Judge blocks #Trump @HHS from ending King Cty teen-pregnancy-prevention grant https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/judge-blocks-trump-administration-from-ending-king-county-teen-pregnancy-prevention-grant/ U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour called the funding cutoff “arbitrary and capricious.” #standwithPP #resist
Judge blocks Trump administration from ending King County teen-pregnancy-prevention grant
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/judge-blocks-trump-administration-from-ending-king-county-teen-pregnancy-prevention-grant/
Originally published May 29, 2018 at 5:35 pm Updated May 29, 2018 at 6:04 pm
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..................The department’s “failure to articulate any explanation for its action, much less a reasoned one based on relevant factors, exemplifies arbitrary and capricious agency action meriting reversal,” Coughenour wrote.
Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. In court documents it argued that it had a right to change its funding priorities.
It also has issued statements suggesting that the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program was ineffective. Advocates of the program credit it with helping to lower the teen pregnancy rate 41 percent since 2010.
“We sued the federal government because they are attempting to eliminate funding for programs based on science and evidence in favor of right-wing ideology that is out of touch with reality,” King County Executive Dow Constantine, a Democrat, said in a written statement.
Congress created the $110 million Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program in 2010 as a way to support and develop evidence-based programs to reduce teen pregnancy. In 2015, Health and Human Services awarded 81 grants that were supposed to last five years.
King County’s grant was to expand its sex-education curriculum — called High School Family Life and Sexual Health, or FLASH — to other jurisdictions around the country, where its effectiveness in persuading teens to delay sex, or to use birth control if they are sexually active, could be measured against that of standard curricula. The program is already considered effective, officials say, and King County’s teen-pregnancy rate is well below the national average.
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Federal judge rules HHS illegally ended funding for teen pregnancy prevention
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/politics/federal-judge-ruling-hhs-teen-pregnancy-prevention-program/index.html
Jennifer Hansler
By Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Updated 5:10 PM ET, Wed May 30, 2018
Current Time 1:52
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Duration Time 1:52
Source: CNNMoney
Who is Alex Azar? 01:52
(CNN)A federal judge in Washington state ruled Tuesday that the Department of Health and Human Services had illegally ended a federal grant program aimed at curbing teen pregnancy -- the fourth federal judge to rule against the department's decision.
Washington state's King County, a recipient of one of 84 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program grants, sued the department and Secretary Alex Azar in February. King County said the early termination of the grant -- June 2018 instead of June 2020 -- would cut $2 million in funding and "makes it impossible to complete a vital evaluation of" its sex education curriculum.
The lawsuit sought to block Azar's department from stopping the funds and "to restrain federal officials from applying an ideological bias to deny science-based projects that have been rigorously vetted and already funded by Congress," according to a news release from the time.
In his decision, US District Judge John Coughenour ruled that "HHS failed to articulate a satisfactory explanation for its decision to shorten King County's project period," saying it "exemplifies arbitrary and capricious agency action meriting reversal."
The ruling vacates HHS' decision to terminate King County's grant and orders the agency to review and process the annual continuation application in a timely manner "as if HHS had not terminated King County's grant award."
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