Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued President Joe Biden on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati, seeking reinstatement of a Trump-era abortion referral ban which Biden reversed earlier this month.

The Biden-era regulation which the US Department of Health and Human Services issued allows health centers to receive funding without regard to whether the health centers advise patients to end their pregnancies.

Biden’s new regulation replaces the 2019 Title X Rule, which required physical and financial separation from “prohibited activities, including providing, referring, encouraging, promoting, or advocating for abortion.” Yost seeks reinstatement of this physical and financial separation of abortion services from other family-planning services. He also seeks reinstatement of the rule which prevents health clinics from referring patients for abortions.

In May, Yost and attorneys general from 20 other states sent a warning letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services, asking them not to reverse the Title X Rule. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia joined Yost in the lawsuit. 

Yost claims that the Biden reversal “allow[s] for taxpayer dollars to be used to encourage and support abortions.” Yost said in a statement: “You can’t ‘follow the money’ when all the money is dumped into one pot and mixed together. Federal law prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion—and that law means means nothing if the federal money isn’t kept separate. That, frankly, is the real reason behind the rule.”