Anti-abortion groups are itching for Tom Price to crack down on abortion, including targeting federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Price can reinstate federal rules that were scrapped by the Obama administration, including a Reagan-era rule that forbid abortion counseling for patients in family planning clinics. His confirmation garnered praise from several groups.
“His strong pro-life record reassures the American public that HHS under President Trump will abandon its aggressive abortion agenda,” said Grazie Pozo Christie, policy adviser for the Catholic Association.
HHS has a range of agencies under its umbrella, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
One of the first areas Price could target is a last-minute rule from the Obama administration concerning Planned Parenthood funding, which went into effect a few days before President Trump’s inauguration.
The rule blocks states from excluding Planned Parenthood from receiving any Title X federal funding. Title X is for family-planning centers. The women’s health and abortion provider has said it provides health services to more than 1.5 million people a year. Those services include breast cancer screenings, pap smears and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
More than a dozen states moved to exclude Planned Parenthood from getting Title X funding after a series of undercover videos surfaced that showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and donation of aborted fetal tissue.
It is illegal under federal law for any federal funding to go to abortions.
The new rule was a “parting gift for Planned Parenthood,” said Melanie Israel, research associate for the right-leaning think tank Heritage Foundation.
Israel said that Congress is already considering removing the rule under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to remove a rule until about 60 days after it goes into effect.
If the move congressionally doesn’t work, then Price could remove it, Israel said.
Republicans have tried to defund Planned Parenthood for years; it receives about $500 million a year in federal funds. Some states have tried to block Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood but have been blocked by courts.
The anti-abortion group Students for Life noted that another focus could be stem cell research, as the National Institutes of Health is under HHS’ purview.
“We want to see ethical stem cell research occurring,” said group President Kristan Hawkins, who previously worked at HHS.
Israel pointed to another rule from the Reagan administration. Introduced in 1988, the rule prohibited any employee of a federally funded family planning clinic from counseling or referring a pregnant client to an abortion center.
The rule was upheld by the Supreme Court but repealed under the Clinton administration. It could be revisited under Price, Israel said.
She added that there are some actions Price can take more quickly than issuing new rules, which can take months to finalize.
Israel pointed to an informational bulletin for CMS created in 2010 that prohibits states from excluding abortion providers from state-run Medicaid programs.
“We believe that is an incorrect interpretation of the informational bulletin,” she said.
The Obama administration pointed to the informational bulletin when Louisiana and Arkansas tried to defund Planned Parenthood in 2015.
Pro-abortion rights groups have decried Price’s nomination, pointing to his record on abortion while serving in the House since 2004.
“Throughout his career, Rep. Price has gleefully advanced his own political ideology and self interest at the expense of sound healthcare policy,” NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a statement after Price’s confirmation early Friday. “Now he is poised to take that same dangerous agenda to the Department of Health and Human Services.”
