The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Biden administration to refuse to disburse federal family planning funds to Oklahoma in an abortion-related dispute.
The administration has sought to withhold the funds because Oklahoma refused to provide patients with a hotline number that could provide neutral information about abortion.
The brief court order rejecting an emergency application filed by the state noted that three of the six conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — disagreed with the outcome. The court did not explain the reasoning behind its decision.
Under the federal family planning law in question, known as Title X, the state funding cannot be used for abortion. But the Biden administration argues that it does not prohibit the government from requiring providers to ensure patients have access to relevant information.
When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration issued a regulation similar to rules issued by previous administrations that required states to offer factual information to pregnant patients on issues like prenatal care, adoption and abortion.
In addition to the requirement that providers supply "non-directive counseling" to pregnant women, it also requires referral upon request.
The new regulation replaced a Trump administration rule that barred any abortion referrals.
In 2022, Oklahoma received the funding after complying with the rule, but after the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that overturned abortion rights landmark Roe v. Wade, the state changed course.
Oklahoma now bans abortion except when a woman's life is in danger and has a law that criminalizes encouraging someone to have an abortion.
Initially, the state agreed as a compromise to provide a hotline number to patients who requested information on abortion, but it later refused to do so.
The state's funding for 2023, worth $4.5 million, was then terminated.
Oklahoma had already joined a challenge to the administration's regulation, but it filed a separate suit seeking to gain access to the Title X funding.
A federal judge in Oklahoma ruled against the state, refusing to require the Biden administration to provide the money. The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached the same conclusion, saying informing patients about the hotline did not constitute an abortion referral.
The state then turned to the Supreme Court in an attempt to gain access to the funding in the future.
Lawyers for the state argue in part that the Department of Health and Human Services does not have the authority to impose new conditions on funding required under Title X.
They added in court papers that the funding is used to provide "critical public health services" across the state.
"Depriving these communities of Title X services would be devastating," they added.
Representing the Biden administration, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a court filing that the Title X regulation is currently in effect in all 50 states.
"Congress routinely conditions federal grants on compliance with requirements contained in agency regulations, and this court has repeatedly upheld such requirements," she added.