The Department of Health and Humans Services has begun the process of undoing a Trump administration policy that prohibited some federal funding for abortion providers, a move that would reinstate funding to more than 1,000 women’s health clinics.
The proposed change would reinstate the pre-Trump administration regulations for Title X, the federal program that provides family planning services, including contraceptives, for low-income and uninsured patients. HHS made the first move on Wednesday to undo the 2019 policy change in order to “ensure access to equitable, affordable, client-centered, quality family planning services for all clients, especially for low-income clients.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO REINSTATE PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING CUT OFF BY TRUMP
“Advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality,” is the Department’s priority, according to the Wednesday media statement announcing the proposal.
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The rule change implemented in March 2019 prohibited Title X grantees from providing abortion services or referring patients for abortion services, except in cases of rape, incest, or a medical emergency that endangered the life of the mother. The move prompted more than 1,000 family planning clinics, including 600 Planned Parenthood clinics, to drop out of the program.
“As a result of the dramatic decline in Title X services provided, the 2019 Final Rule undermined the mission of the Title X program,” HHS said in the new proposed rule, adding that the rule also “may have led to up to 181,477 unintended pregnancies.”
Abortion rights advocates have referred to the ban on federally funded women’s healthcare providers from counseling patients about the procedure as a “domestic gag rule.”
Trump campaigned in 2016 on limiting funding for Planned Parenthood. He said on the eve of the 2016 Texas primary that he “would defund it because of the abortion factor … because I’m pro-life.”
“[The Biden administration’s] latest push to bail out the abortion industry proves there is no rule they won’t rewrite or simply ignore to get their way,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group. “President Trump’s Protect Life Rule respected both the plain statutory language of Title X and the strong majority of Americans who oppose using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion on demand.”
Title X provides about $286 million in grants annually to clinics, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, which provide services to over 1.5 million women nationwide.
