White House plans new rule on abortion
Funding would be tied to restrictions on the procedure
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Friday to place new restrictions on access to abortion, as the Health and Human Services Department prepared new regulations that would effectively bar organizations that receive federal family planning money from providing abortions or counseling women about how to get the procedure.
The proposal — which has not yet been officially issued as a rule — would expand limits on what activities organizations such as Planned Parenthood can provide. It certainly will set off a new legal battle over abortion services.
According to the White House, the proposal would require recipients of Title X family planning funds to establish a “bright line of physical as well as financial separation” between federally funded family planning services and any programs where abortion services are performed or discussed.
The administration argues this is not a “gag rule” that would prohibit discussions of abortion services.
But the proposal would expand long-standing restrictions on the use of federal funds. Abortion providers now must ensure that no federal money is used to pay for the procedure.
Many family planning advocates think that the new rule, if implemented, would make it impossible for many clinicians to talk freely with pregnant women about their options.
“This ‘gag rule’ is not only unconscionable, but it undermines medical ethics by forcing health care professionals to withhold accurate and timely medical information from patients,” said Dr. Jenn Conti, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Abortion opponents have lobbied hard for new restrictions, pushing the Trump administration to extend the new limits on federal funding.
A host of anti-abortion rights groups cheered the White House moves Friday.
“This is a major victory which will energize the grass-roots as we head into the critical midterm elections,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Trump, whose past pronouncements in support of abortion rights once made social conservatives nervous, is scheduled to speak at the Susan B. Anthony List’s annual gala Tuesday.
The White House cast the proposal as the latest in the administration’s moves to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to restrict access to abortion services.
The Trump administration has supported provisions in GOP bills to roll back the Affordable Care Act to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortion services. Those bills failed as the GOP campaign to repeal the 2010 health care law collapsed.
But anti-abortion rights groups have kept up their campaign to squeeze off government funding for Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortion services.
In the crosshairs has been Title X, the nation’s first federal program dedicated to supporting family planning services, such as contraception and counseling. Since 1970, the Title X program has funded thousands of clinics and other medical providers.
The money has never been used to pay for abortions. But because some recipients of Title X funding also provided abortion services, Title X has long been a target of conservatives.
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s administration proposed regulations to bar clinicians at any organization receiving Title X funding from providing abortion counseling or referral, even when requested by a pregnant woman.
This so-called “domestic gag rule” was challenged in court and upheld by the Supreme Court, but by then, President Bill Clinton was in office, and he stopped implementation of the rule. It was never reinstated.
The new proposal from the Trump administration would not explicitly prohibit organizations that receive Title X money from counseling women about abortion services, according to the White House.
But it would change the long-standing requirement that family planning counseling include a discussion about the full range of options available to women, including abortion.
And it would prevent Title X recipients from referring women who want abortions to providers that offer these services.
That would mark a major step backward, said Kinsey Hasstedt, senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that studies family planning and abortion.
“Title X is based around the concept of patient-centered care,” she said. “It requires that all pregnant patients receive counseling on and referral for the full range of pregnancy options.”
Hasstedt and others also say the proposed rule could make it impossible for groups such as Planned Parenthood to get Title X funding.