Biden moves to undo Trump’s ban on clinics making abortion referrals
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday began to undo a Trump-era ban on clinics referring women for abortions, a policy that drove Planned Parenthood from the federal family planning program and created new complications for women trying to get birth control.
The proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services follows through on President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to reverse his predecessor’s family planning policy, which was branded a “gag rule” by women’s groups and decried by medical associations as violating the doctorpatient relationship.
But the Biden administration stopped short of immediately suspending the Trump regulation, which went into effect in 2019. While some abortion rights advocates had sought that additional step, administration officials believe that moving carefully and deliberately will increase the odds of the proposed changes being upheld in court.
Known as Title X, the federal family planning program has been in place for 50 years. It makes available about $286 million annually in grants that support clinics serving mainly low-income women. Those clinics, which provide birth control and basic health care services, have been whipsawed by Trump-era battles over ideology and by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on health services providers. Before exiting the program in 2019, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates served an estimated 40 percent of the patients.
Though by law federal family planning money could not be used to pay for abortions, religious conservatives long regarded the program as a form of indirect subsidy to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions. Former President Donald Trump counted on religious conservatives as a cornerstone of his political base and acceded to their demands on a range of women’s health issues.
Besides banning abortion referrals, his administration required federally funded clinics to financially and physically separate themselves from facilities that provide abortions. Abortion counseling was designated as an optional instead of a standard practice, and limits were placed on which staff members could discuss abortion with patients, among other requirements. Pregnant women were supposed to be referred for prenatal counseling even if they did not want it.
The department said its proposed rule reversal will restore the program to how it ran under President Barack Obama, when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.
Planned Parenthood’s president, Alexis Mcgill Johnson, said her organization could be participating in the program again some time next year, if the Biden rule is finalized as expected. HHS said clinics that left the program will gradually return, and Title X should again be serving about 4 million clients within a couple of years.
The head of a national group that works to elect candidates opposed to abortion said the administration is rewarding Planned Parenthood for its political support. “Coming on the heels of the Biden FDA’S refusal to enforce safety regulations on dangerous abortion drugs, plus Biden’s efforts to undermine the Supreme Court, their latest push to bail out the abortion industry proves there is no rule they won’t rewrite or simply ignore to get their way,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement.