The Biden administration announced Thursday that it would rewrite a Trump-era policy that barred federal family planning funding from going to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that refer patients to abortion.
The Department of Health and Human Services will rewrite the 2019 rule that withheld federal funding through the Title X Family Planning Program from providers who direct women to abortion services. HHS is expected to propose new rules for the family planning program similar to those implemented in 2000 and ended under the Trump administration.
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The Trump policy, known as the “gag rule” among abortion rights advocates, caused major organizations to opt out of the Title X program. Planned Parenthood, the largest single provider of Title X services with more than 600 health clinics around the United States, announced in August 2019 that it would drop out of the program. Hundreds of other women’s health clinics, such as Maine Family Planning and the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, have also withdrawn from the program.
President Biden signed a presidential memorandum on Jan. 28 that would “reverse my predecessor’s attack on women’s health access,” adding that the policy change “reinstates the changes that were made to Title X and other things making it harder for women to have access to affordable health care as it relates to their reproductive rights.”
Once HHS issues the new rule, it could take months for hundreds of providers to reapply for the program and rejoin Title X networks across the country.
