A group of 41 Republican senators want President Trump to issue new regulations that would bar recipients of family planning grants from co-locating with an abortion clinic and promoting or referring clients for abortions.
In a Monday letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the senators called for an update to regulations governing Title X family planning grants, which are given to organizations that give reproductive healthcare to low-income families and expectant mothers. They say the agency’s current regulations undermine federal law that states federal funding cannot be used in programs in which abortion is a method of family planning.
The letter said the current Clinton-era regulations require grantees to refer pregnant women for abortion and allow “Title X clinics to co-locate with abortion clinics — in some cases utilizing the same waiting rooms, staff and facilities.”
The letter comes after some states have sought to redirect Title X funds from Planned Parenthood toward community health centers.
Nebraska prohibited Planned Parenthood centers in the state from serving patients through Title X, the women’s health and abortion provider said in a statement last month.
The letter argues that the new regulations would “ensure program integrity by requiring a robust and complete separation of abortion activities from federally funded family planning activities. Any programs failing to achieve this standard should not receive federal funding.”
Republican Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Joni Ernst of Iowa, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Steve Daines of Montana led the letter. No Democrats signed on to the letter.
A group of more than 150 Republican House members signed a companion letter to Azar on Monday.
