The Biden administration is repealing the abortion gag rule set up under Donald Trump, which prohibited organizations receiving federal family planning funds from providing abortion referrals. The gag rule, put in place in 2019, forced Planned Parenthood out of the Title X program, which subsidizes birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other preventive care for millions of low-income, uninsured, and young patients.
Trump’s gag rule “slashed the Title X national family planning network’s patient capacity in half, jeopardizing care for 1.6 million female patients nationwide,” according to the Guttmacher Institute, which estimated that “roughly one in every four Title X service sites left the network in 2019 because of the domestic gag rule.” In 10 states, the network of Title X providers was reduced by 90% or more, and in another seven states, it was reduced by 50% or more.
Reproductive care providers in the Title X program can never provide abortions, but Trump’s gag rule prevented them from providing abortion referrals. Instead, they could provide only a list of other health care providers, some of which could provide abortions and others only prenatal care, without indicating which were which.
By driving providers away from Title X, though, the Trump administration compromised access to contraception and cancer screenings. And as we know, as logic dictates, and as years of evidence show, when people don’t have access to contraception, there are more unintended pregnancies—potentially hundreds of thousands more, including among teens. That means a combination of more abortions and more people forced to carry pregnancies they do not want.
The Biden administration’s new rule, rolling back the gag rule, will take effect on November 8. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Alexis McGill Johnson called the move “a major victory for patients, access to sexual and reproductive health care, and health equity.”
”Title X is a critical piece of our social safety net that can, and should, ensure that people with low incomes can access essential health care without forcing providers to withhold referrals for all of the options available to them,” she said in a statement. McGill Johnson did criticize the Biden administration for not going far enough—the new rule allows “objecting individuals and grantees” to opt out of providing counseling and abortion referrals.
The next Republican president can reinstate a gag rule, of course, but for now, the worst limits are lifted. It’s a small piece of good news for reproductive rights in the middle of all the terrible news coming out of the Supreme Court.
Trump’s gag rule “slashed the Title X national family planning network’s patient capacity in half, jeopardizing care for 1.6 million female patients nationwide,” according to the Guttmacher Institute, which estimated that “roughly one in every four Title X service sites left the network in 2019 because of the domestic gag rule.” In 10 states, the network of Title X providers was reduced by 90% or more, and in another seven states, it was reduced by 50% or more.
Reproductive care providers in the Title X program can never provide abortions, but Trump’s gag rule prevented them from providing abortion referrals. Instead, they could provide only a list of other health care providers, some of which could provide abortions and others only prenatal care, without indicating which were which.
By driving providers away from Title X, though, the Trump administration compromised access to contraception and cancer screenings. And as we know, as logic dictates, and as years of evidence show, when people don’t have access to contraception, there are more unintended pregnancies—potentially hundreds of thousands more, including among teens. That means a combination of more abortions and more people forced to carry pregnancies they do not want.
The Biden administration’s new rule, rolling back the gag rule, will take effect on November 8. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Alexis McGill Johnson called the move “a major victory for patients, access to sexual and reproductive health care, and health equity.”
”Title X is a critical piece of our social safety net that can, and should, ensure that people with low incomes can access essential health care without forcing providers to withhold referrals for all of the options available to them,” she said in a statement. McGill Johnson did criticize the Biden administration for not going far enough—the new rule allows “objecting individuals and grantees” to opt out of providing counseling and abortion referrals.
The next Republican president can reinstate a gag rule, of course, but for now, the worst limits are lifted. It’s a small piece of good news for reproductive rights in the middle of all the terrible news coming out of the Supreme Court.