US Supreme Court agrees to decide on legality of Trump restriction on abortion referrals

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider the legality of a 2019 Trump adminstration regulation that bars health clinics from receiving federal funding through Title X of the 1970 Public Health Services Act if they provide abortion referrals, Reuters reports.

The Supreme Court will consider appeals in cases brought by 21 states including Oregon, California, and New York, and by organizations including the American Medical Association and Planned Parenthood, Reuters said.

Before the new rule was implemented by the Department of Health and Human Service in 2019, healthcare providers that also gave abortion referrals were entitled to receive federal funding as long as that money was used only for other family planning purposes.

The Trump administration had said the new regulation does not prohibit healthcare providers from giving any information at all about abortion but, rather, enforces a provision in the 1970 law that prohibits federal funds being used “in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”

The 2019 regulation was part of Trump’s campaign pledge to end federal support for Planned Parenthood, which received around $60 million annually, or one fifth of Title X funds. Planned Parenthood left the program in 2019 rather than discontinue its abortion provision and referrals.

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