The Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed rule Tuesday that would ban abortion providers from getting Title X funding.
The proposed regulation, which has not been submitted for public comment yet, requires that abortion services be separated “physically and financially” from family planning services receiving Title X funding. The services had to be separated only financially, according to a 2000 revision of the rule. (RELATED: Trump To Propose Title 10 Funding Cuts For Abortion Groups)
Any Planned Parenthood clinic that provides abortions in the same building as other family planning services cannot receive the funding under the proposed rule.
The proposed changes would also prevent doctors receiving Title X funding from “promoting, referring for, or supporting, abortion as a method of family planning.” However, a doctor may still provide a patient with a list of abortion providers if she has stated that she wants an abortion.
“For decades, American taxpayers have been wrongfully forced to subsidize the abortion industry through Title X federal funding,” President Donald Trump said to attendees of a Susan B. Anthony List gala on Tuesday. “Today, we have kept another promise. My administration has proposed a new rule to prohibit Title X funding from going to any clinic that performs abortions.”
Planned Parenthood called the proposal a “gag rule,” stating that it would “prevent doctors from giving patients the vital reproductive health care they need.”
The Title X program was enacted in 1970 under the Public Health Service Act in order to promote family planning. The program authorizes the government “to make grants to and enter into contracts with public or nonprofit private entities” who provide family planning services such as birth control or access to condoms.
Title X funds were never able to be used for abortions, however, they could be used by providers who provide abortions in addition to traditional family planning services.
Of the people who benefit from Title X funded programs, 40 percent get these benefits at Planned Parenthood, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The organization, however, gets the majority, 75 percent, of their federal funding from Medicaid reimbursements.
Follow Julia Cohen on Facebook and Twitter.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.