Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Administration Imposes New Abortion Restrictions On Federally Funded Family Planning Clinics
The Associated Press: Trump To Deny Funds To Clinics That Discuss Abortion
The Trump administration will resurrect a Reagan-era rule that would ban federally funded family planning clinics from discussing abortion with women, or sharing space with abortion providers. The Department of Health and Human Services will announce its proposal Friday, a senior White House official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to confirm the plans before the announcement. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/18)
The New York Times: Trump Administration To Tie Health Facilities’ Funding To Abortion Restrictions
The rule, which is to be announced Friday, is a top priority of social conservatives and is the latest move by President Trump to impose curbs on abortion rights, in this case by withholding money from any facility or program that promotes abortion or refers patients to a caregiver that will provide one. The policy would be a return to one instituted in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan that required abortion services to have a “physical separation” and “separate personnel” from other family planning activities. That policy is often described as a domestic gag rule because it barred caregivers at facilities that received family planning funds from providing any information to patients about an abortion or where to receive one. (Davis and Haberman, 5/17)
Bloomberg: Trump Administration To Propose New Curbs On Abortion
The White House already reinstated a ban on taxpayer funding for foreign aid organizations that provide or promote abortions and rescinded guidance issued under the Obama administration that protected Planned Parenthood from efforts at the state level to reduce or eliminate its taxpayer funding. The proposal will not fully prohibit clinics from counseling patients about abortion. But it will eliminate current requirements that programs and facilities receiving money from the approximately $260 million federal family planning program must be willing to counsel and refer patients for abortion. (Sink, 5/17)
