Appeals court allows Trump abortion rules to take effect!
Sources: The Associated Press, CBS, USA Today 06/20/2019
QUOTE
New Trump administration rules imposing additional hurdles for women seeking abortions can take effect while the government appeals decisions that blocked them, a federal appeals court said Thursday.
The rules ban taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals and prohibit clinics that receive federal money from sharing office space with abortion providers — a rule critics said would force many to find new locations, undergo expensive remodels or shut down.
More than 20 states and several civil rights and health organizations challenged the rules in cases filed in Oregon, Washington and California. Judges in all three states blocked the rules from taking effect, with Oregon and Washington courts issuing nationwide injunctions. One called the new policy “madness” and said it was motivated by “an arrogant assumption that the government is better suited to direct women’s health care than their providers.”
But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco called the rules “reasonable” and said they accord with a federal law that prohibits taxpayer funds from going to “programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”
“If the program refers patients to abortion providers for family planning services, then that program is logically one ‘where abortion is a method of family planning,’” the panel wrote.
It granted the Justice Department a stay of the lower court injunctions, allowing the rules to take effect. A federal court in Maryland has also issued an order blocking the rules, but that only applied in that state. The Justice Department has appealed it.
“We are pleased that the Ninth Circuit has cleared the way for this important executive branch action to take effect while our appeals are pending,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco said in an emailed statement. “The Department of Justice’s position is supported by long-standing Supreme Court precedent and we are confident we will ultimately prevail on appeal.”
The states and health care providers who challenged the law vowed to keep fighting. Planned Parenthood said it would immediately ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider the decision….
…Under the Clinton administration, those rules were abandoned in favor of a requirement that the clinics provide neutral abortion counseling and referrals upon request.
Those challenging Trump’s approach pointed to the Affordable Care Act, which bars the government from creating unreasonable barriers to medical care or interfering with communications between the patient and provider. But the 9th Circuit said that just because the government is refusing to subsidize abortion referrals does not mean it’s creating barriers or interfering with communications...
“This decision is a major step toward the Trump Administration being able to ensure that all Title X projects comply with the Title X statute and do not support abortion as a method of family planning,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a news release…
…Planned Parenthood said it would immediately ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider the decision.
"The Title X gag rule is censoring doctors and nurses," Dr. Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook. "It's the government telling doctors and nurses what we can and cannot say to our patients."
"The Trump-Pence administration's gag rule is unethical, illegal, and harmful to public health," Wen said in a written statement. "The news out of the 9th Circuit this morning is devastating for the millions of people who rely on Title X health centers for cancer screenings, HIV tests, affordable birth control and other critical primary and preventive care."
A federal court in Maryland has also issued an order blocking the rules from taking effect, but that ruling only applies in that state. The Justice Department has appealed it....
Missouri won't renew license of St. Louis Planned Parenthood, state's last abortion clinic.
On June 20, 2019, Missouri’s health department weaponized a regulatory process to deny an abortion license to the last remaining health center in Missouri that provides abortion. The fate of abortion access now rests in a court’s hands.
UNQUOTE
Until then,
For Calvary Life Team
Joseph Onipogui-BS, MBA & MISM