President Trump banned the use of federal funding for abortion referrals on Monday, in a move hailed by pro-life advocates everywhere.
The administration ordered all taxpayer funded family planning clinics to stop providing abortion referrals immediately or risk losing Title X funding. Trump’s move dealt a crushing blow to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country and the biggest recipient of this category of federal money.
Planned Parenthood say that they will defy the new rules, which means the organization risks losing millions of dollars in funding.
Immediate enforcement
The Department of Health and Human Services notified family planning clinics that the new rules will be enforced immediately. Planned Parenthood, the biggest beneficiary affected, responded by vowing to continue fighting for abortion rights.
“Our doors are still open,” said former Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen, who was abruptly forced out a day later. “We will not stop fighting for all those across the country in need of essential care.”
But the organization said that Trump’s order dealt a “devastating blow” to its operations after an appeals court upheld the rules last month. The rules are a step forward to defunding Planned Parenthood, which has said it will tap into its “emergency funds” to stay open and continue providing abortion referrals.
The “Protect Life” rule, which abortion supporters call a “gag rule,” has been making its way through the courts. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted to let a June decision allowing the “gag rule” to stand, finding that the law was on the side of Health and Human Services in distinguishing Title X as a “limited” program for prenatal services only, not abortions.
While the litigation continues, the Trump administration says there is no legal block to enforcing the rules now. The new rules will also reportedly require Title X grantees to be housed and operated distinctly from abortion centers, starting next year. The order was celebrated by pro-life groups like the Susan B. Anthony List, which said that Trump’s order rightly separates family planning from abortion by cutting off Title X money to abortion providers.
“Without reducing Title X funding by a dime, the Protect Life Rule simply draws a bright line between abortion and family planning, stopping abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood from treating Title X as their private slush fund,” the group said.
Planned Parenthood defiant
Title X provides $260 million annually to family planning clinics that serve about 40 million women. Although the program prohibits money from being directly spent on abortions, pro-life advocates argue that money that goes to abortion providers indirectly funds abortion just the same.
Abortion providers blasted Trump’s decision as an attack on women, especially low-income women, who they said risk losing vital health care access. However, the rules won’t force any family planning clinics to close or cut back on their operations — they will simply need to comply with the rule prohibiting them from promoting or performing abortions.
Planned Parenthood, philosophically committed to providing and performing abortions, has chosen to reject the new rules and exit the Title X program. The abortion provider said that the so-called “gag rule” would ban their staff from letting patients know about the full range of “health care options,” namely, abortion. An independent clinic, Maine Family Planning, also rejected the rules.
“We are not going to comply with a regulation that would require health care providers to not give full information to their patients,” Jacqueline Ayers, the group’s top lobbyist, said in an interview Tuesday. “We believe as a health care provider it is wrong to withhold health care information from patients.”
Planned Parenthood will most assuredly pressure Congress and the courts to reverse the “gag rule.” About 40% of clinics that receive Title X funding are operated by Planned Parenthood.
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