The introduced rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) follows through on President Joe Biden’s campaign vow to repeal his predecessor’s family planning system. But the Biden administration held off immediately halting the Trump regulation, which went into effect in 2019.
Remembered 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 help clinics serving principally low-income women.
Though by law federal family planning money could not be used to pay for abortions, religious conservatives have long seen the program as a form of indirect aid to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest contributor for abortions.
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Besides prohibiting abortion referrals, the government of former President Donald Trump ordered federally funded clinics to financially and materially separate themselves from facilities that provide abortions. Abortion counseling was selected as an optional rather than standard practice, and limits were placed on which staff members could consider abortion with patients, among other conditions.
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HHS said its advanced law reversal will restore the program to how it ran under former President Barack Obama when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.
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“Ultimately, continued enforcement of the 2019 rule raises the possibility of a two-tiered health care system in which those with insurance and full access to health care receive full medical information and referrals, while low-income populations with fewer opportunities for care are relegated to inferior access,” HHS said in a statement. "This situation creates a widespread public health concern.”
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The rule cancellation on family planning clinics is proceeding alongside litigation over the Trump administration policy, now before the Supreme Court. In that case, the justices agreed to hear a challenge to the rules Biden is now trying to unravel. The Biden administration and medical groups that filed the challenge are asking the court to dismiss the case, but Republican state attorneys general want to proceed. The court has yet to say what it will do.
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The Biden administration expected that as a result of the Trump policy changes, the program serves about 1.5 million fewer women a year, a 37% reduction from the average caseload from 2016-18. HHS also estimated that the Trump policies may have led to up to 180,000 unintended pregnancies.
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Planned Parenthood's president, Alexis McGill Johnson, said her company could be engaged in the program again sometime next year, if the Biden rule is achieved as anticipated. 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.
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