#FixTitleX: Reverse Trump’s family planning gag rule

THE ISSUE

The Biden-Harris administration wants to overturn Trump-era restrictions to the Title X federal family planning funding, which covers the cost of contraceptive care, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, wellness exams, and other preventive care for more than 4 million adults nationwide and 23,000 in Maine. In 2019, the Trump administration passed a rule that blocked Title X funding to any health center that provided abortion care or referrals. Known as the “domestic gag rule,” the regulation banned clinicians from referring some patients to safe, legal abortions; required Title X clinics to be physically separate from those that perform abortion; and eliminated an Obama-era rule requiring clinicians to give women information on all reproductive health care options. As a result, nearly 1,000 Title X clinics—including all the clinics in Maine—were forced to leave the program, reducing the network’s capacity by 46% nationwide and 100% in Maine. In the first five months after the rule’s passage, 844,803 fewer patients received care than had the previous year. Mainers submitted more than 1,400 comments opposing the Trump gag rule.

Now, the Biden-Harris administration has proposed a rule to reverse Trump’s harmful policy, a move backed by the American Medical Association. Public comments on the Biden-Harris rule will be used to shape the final regulation, and could be used by anti-abortion organizations to challenge the new rule in court. 

THE ACTION

• Submit a public comment. Write a brief comment in support of the rule to reverse Trump’s Title X gag rule using the talking points below. Submit it through the federal comment page or via this form from Planned Parenthood. Deadline for comments is Monday, May 17.
• Learn more. Find out how the public comment process is important here. Read more about Trump’s gag rule here in our 2018 Call to Action.

TALKING POINTS

• If you have received reproductive health care from a family planning clinic, are a health care provider, social worker or advocate, include in your comments how Title X services have improved your life and/or the lives of your patients or clients and how Trump’s gag rule negatively affected you or your patients. 
• The domestic gag rule disproportionately harmed low-income individuals: 80% of Mainers who received Title X-funded care qualify for free or reduced-fee services.
• In 105 counties, Planned Parenthood was the only full-service provider of publicly funded contraceptive care.
• According to the Guttmacher Institute, contraceptive care provided by Title X-funded providers helped people avoid 822,000 unintended pregnancies, preventing an estimated 278,000 abortions
• Without the services provided by Title X-funded clinics, the U.S. unintended pregnancy rate would be 31% higher and the rate among teens would be 44% higher.
• Title X funds have never been used to pay for abortion care.