Attorney General Ellison blocks illegal cuts to comprehensive sexual health education

Ellison protects over $2 million in federal funding for teen pregnancy prevention, STI prevention, and more

October 28, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction late Monday blocking the Trump administration from defunding reproductive and sexual health education programs unless those programs agreed to fully erase any acknowledgment of gender identity from their curricula. The ruling is the latest in a lawsuit filed by 16 states and the District of Columbia, which Attorney General Ellison co-led. The states sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in September alleging the administration was denying young people services for cruel and purely political reasons with no regard for the law.

"I'm pleased to have protected funding for important health education programs across Minnesota, which provide valuable information on topics like preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections,” said Attorney General Ellison. “The Trump administration needs to learn they cannot hold our tax dollars hostage unless we go along with their politics of exclusion. Until they learn this lesson and follow the law, we will continue to meet them in court to protect our tax dollars, uphold the rule of law, and defend Minnesotans’ rights.”

The two programs that were threatened are the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), as well as the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) program, both of which award grants funding sexual health education serving important public health needs, including preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections and preventing unwanted pregnancies. Minnesota has received grant awards through both programs of a number of years, which the Minnesota Department of Health distributes to organizations providing direct sexual health education services throughout the state. Monday’s preliminary injunction protected approximately $2.4 million in federal funding awarded to Minnesota.

In Minnesota, the SRAE and PREP grants are necessary to ensure that organizations can employ qualified, dedicated sexual health educators serving thousands of families and delivering curriculum that addresses teen pregnancy prevention, STI prevention, and a range of other important public health topics. The programming conducted in Minnesota using these grants provides important information to a wide variety of communities. One subgrantee provides education programming in detention centers for vulnerable teenagers. Another subgrantee provides programming in Red Lake and incorporates Ojibwe language into the programming with an adapted curriculum for grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other caretakers who are raising teenagers in need of sexual health education.   

HHS’s actions violate the federal Administrative Procedure Act as well as the United States Constitution. Congress created the grant programs with clear statutory requirements that are at direct odds with the Trump Administration’s baseless insistence that gender is absolute, fixed, and binary, and that any reference to transgender status or gender identity must be erased altogether.

Forcing states to use medically unsupported, incomplete PREP and SRAE program content violates laws adopted by Congress. The action is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. By unilaterally imposing these vague and nonsensical conditions, it also usurps Congress’ spending power and violates the separation of powers.

Attorney General Ellison co-led the lawsuit, alongside the attorneys general of Washington and Oregon. Joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.