Press Releases
10/06/2020
Attorney General Tong Joins Coalition Seeking Supreme Court Review of Trump-Pence Administration’s Title X Family Planning Gag Rule
(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general today filing a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the Trump-Pence Administration’s gag rule that has dismantled the nation’s Title X family planning program. They join the American Medical Association, the Oregon Medical Association, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, and Essential Access Health in seeking review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision to uphold the rule. The gag rule restricts access to critical preventive healthcare and access to birth control and prohibits doctors from providing accurate information to patients on their healthcare options including referrals for abortion.“The gag rule has put clinics in an impossible position—either stop giving patients vital medical information or give up millions of dollars in federal funding. The decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has had devastating impacts on access to preventive and reproductive healthcare for women and families and cannot be left unchallenged,” said Attorney General Tong. “There can be no space for politics in the relationship between a woman and her doctor.”
The Title X family planning program is instrumental in the delivery of preventive and reproductive healthcare to low-income women and families. In 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rule imposing major changes on the Title X program including:
· Limiting the information that can be shared with a patient at a Title X clinic;
· Prohibiting referrals for abortion, even when a patient specifically requests;
· Mandating referrals for prenatal care for all patients, even if this care is not requested; and
· Requiring physician and financial separation for clinics for Title X funded services from abortion care.
Before 2019, the Title X program funded a wide array of critical public health services, including family planning counseling, access to FDA-approved contraceptive methods, pelvic exams, and crucial screenings for high blood pressure, anemia, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and cervical and breast cancer. The Trump-Pence Administration’s new Title X rule, however, has harmed the Title X program nationwide.
In 13 states, more than 50 percent of Title X grantees have withdrawn from the program, and several states no longer have any Title X providers. New providers have not filled the gap caused by the withdrawals because these providers don’t provide family planning counseling or birth control. As a result, states have faced increased burdens to meet residents’ needs for essential healthcare.
Prior to the rule, clinics providing family planning services to low income people in Connecticut received $2.5 million in Title X funding, serving over 45,000 patients. Planned Parenthood of Southern New England elected to stop receiving Title X funding as a result of the rule.
Joining Attorney General Tong in filing the petition are the attorneys general of California, New York, Oregon, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The effort was led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
A copy of the petition to the U.S. Supreme Court is available here.
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