President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to propose new regulations that will override the Trump administration’s rule barring Title X family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
A press release from the HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA) Thursday stated a memorandum from President Joe Biden issued January 28 directed HHS to “ensure that undue restrictions are not put on the use of federal funds or on women’s access to medical information.”
OPA said its revision of the Trump Title X regulations would be “substantively similar to those issued in 2000.”
The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) observation that the announcement the Trump administration’s Title X family planning rule would be overhauled came on the same day Xavier Becerra, known to have close ties to the abortion industry, was confirmed to head up the Biden HHS:
BREAKING: Day 1 of Xavier Becerra's new job as Secretary of HHS, and the agency has already announced their intention to rewrite the Title X rule, forcing taxpayers to send even more tax dollars to Planned Parenthood & the abortion industry
Our statement: https://t.co/nexR4HBWcS pic.twitter.com/ConGEP7uoM
— Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) March 18, 2021
Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA List president, said in a statement:
From day one the Biden-Harris administration has pushed a radical and deeply unpopular agenda on abortion. On the very same day Xavier Becerra – a notoriously eager pro-abortion advocate – is confirmed to lead HHS, the agency announces plans to rewrite Title X and force taxpayers to fund the abortion industry. President Trump’s Protect Life Rule sought to honor both the plain statutory language and the will of Americans of all stripes who oppose using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion on demand.
Planned Parenthood celebrated the announcement of the Trump rule rewrite:
🙌YES! This is a key step towards what we’ve been fighting for — it’s time we #FixTitleX and restore access to essential reproductive health care. https://t.co/HrsYP7NeYd
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) March 18, 2021
The proposed rule is expected to be released by April 15, with a final rule in place “by early fall and effective in time for the Fiscal Year 2022 funding announcement,” OPA said.
HHS released the announcement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to hear a challenge to the Trump rule brought by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the American Medical Association.
However, on March 12, Biden’s Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case.
In 2019, the Trump administration issued the final rule, which drew a firm boundary between abortion and family planning.
The rule barred Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving Title X federal family planning funds if they continued to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.”
The Trump administration rule reinstated President Ronald Reagan’s “Protect Life Rule,” which prohibits the “co-location” of federally funded family planning clinics with abortion clinics.
As a result of the Trump HHS rule, Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses were blocked from approximately $60 million in federal Title X grant money.
Subsequently, Planned Parenthood decided to withdraw from the Title X grant program, rather than give up referring women and girls for abortions.
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