The nation’s top doctors’ lobby condemned President Trump’s push to create a firewall between federal funds for family planning and abortion services, saying Thursday it amounts to a “gag order” that will intrude on the doctor-patient relationship.
“High-quality medical care relies on honest, unfiltered conversations between patients and their physicians,” American Medical Association President David O. Barbe said. “Gag orders that restrict the ability of physicians to explain all options to their patients and refer them—whatever their health care needs—compromise this relationship and force physicians and nurses to withhold information that their patients need to make decisions about their care.”
The proposed rule change to Title X — a $260 million federal program for contraception and other services — revives a Reagan-era interpretation of the 1970 law that bars clinics from referring patients to abortion services.
Clinics could still counsel women on abortion under the pending rule, just not require them to offer the counseling or let them give referrals.
The proposal, which could take months to finalize, also says clinics that perform abortions under the same roof as other family planning services should not receive Title X money. That means Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, would have to rearrange its operations or risk being carved out of the program.
“The AMA objects strongly to the administration’s plan to withhold federal family planning funding from Planned Parenthood and other entities,” Dr. Barbe said.
Federal funding cannot be used for abortion, though Title X grants assist low-income Americans to receive things like birth control and other reproductive health services.
Mr. Trump’s conservative base has railed against any public funding for Planned Parenthood, saying money is fungible, so taxpayers are propping up the abortion side of their business.
Planned Parenthood provides contraception services for an estimated 40 percent of the 4 million covered by Title X. Many of them don’t have a backup, Democrats and advocates say, so cutting it out of Title X will leave them in the lurch.
Planned Parenthood, which is reportedly considering litigation against the rule, pointed to internal polling from the left-leaning Hart Research Associates, which said 73 percent of Americans oppose the so-called “gag rule.”
Top Republicans, however, hailed the move as safeguarding taxpayer dollars and restoring a balance between health needs and religious freedoms.
“It is imperative that citizens have access to health-centered family planning services, and it is just as important that Title X health providers are protected from a government-directed violation of religious and moral convictions,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “Abortion and family planning cannot be conflated without dismissing the sanctity of life. By scrapping the requirement that health providers must promote abortion as an option, President Trump has taken a large step toward preserving individual freedoms and the respect for human life, including unborn life.”
Mr. Trump is basking in the glow of praise from pro-life groups that rallied around his candidacy in 2016.
On Tuesday, he boasted that his move to revamp Title X is “historic” and said he will shame Senate Democrats who stand in the way of a legislative ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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