A federal judge is restraining the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for now, from publicly disclosing Planned Parenthood bidding information for Title X funding, which the non-profit said could gut its competitive edge if ever seeing the light of day.
The government prohibits Title X funding being used for abortions. The Title X funding at issue in the case relates to family planning services for things like contraception, infertility services, HIV testing and pregnancy testing.
Seattle Federal Judge John Coughenour said Thursday that planned disclosures “would immediately and irreparably injure” Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands. There’d be nothing stopping competitors from seeing the organization’s confidential bidding information for Title X funding, the judge noted.
The government prohibits Title X funding being used for abortions. The Title X funding at issue in the case relates to family planning services for things like contraception, infertility services, HIV testing and pregnancy testing.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had never before tried revealing a successful bid containing confidential commercial information, Planned Parenthood said in court papers.
It wasn’t lost on Planned Parenthood that the “unprecedented” disclosure attempt surrounding its winning $588,000 award was happening in the current political climate.
In court papers, the non-profit said the Department of Health and Human Services’ “decision to release the confidential records has taken place in the midst of repeated efforts by HHS and the current administration to fundamentally remake the Title X program and exclude Planned Parenthood affiliates from participating in it.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had never before tried revealing a successful bid containing confidential commercial information, Planned Parenthood said in court papers.
Earlier this week, midterm elections gave Democrats control of the House of Representatives, while Republicans kept control of the Senate. Both abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion groups viewed the results as a win.
Here, government officials were looking to release details of the organization’s winning fiscal year 2018 application on Friday, as competitions for fiscal year 2019 funding kicked off.
According to Planned Parenthood, government officials first said they had to disclose the information because of a Freedom of Information Act request.
They allegedly changed their reasoning by saying “there was no such request, but instead that HHS sought to proactively disclose the application” in order to be ready for future Freedom of Information Act requests.
The information release would have occurred Friday.
The restraining order notes it will expire Nov. 16, “unless extended by the parties and the court.”
Planned Parenthood said without any help from the courts, the information release would — with crucial internal information like costs per patient — would just let competitors “simply copy and paste its application with few adaptations.”
Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands filed a 187-page application in May to offer services in Hawaii. The organization or its predecessor organization has worked for more than two decades in the state.
The organization learned in August of its service award for seven months. A month later, staffers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Planned Parenthood they were planning to release the application.
The sides fought over disclosures and redactions until the government sent a Nov. 2 letter saying Planned Parenthood would need a court order to stop the release.
Government lawyers are scheduled to file court papers later this month.
Planned Parenthood could not be immediately reached for comment on the court order.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a comment request.
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