The 9th Circuit just ruled that Trump may go ahead and cut funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities via his new Title X funding rules:
DC EXAMINER – The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Trump administration’s restrictions on family planning funds could go into effect, a move that would cut off millions of dollars from organizations like Planned Parenthood that provide abortions.
The Trump administration’s rules had been temporarily blocked nationwide by federal judges in Oregon and Washington, and statewide in California. On Thursday, a panel of judges in the 9th Circuit granted the request 3-0 from the Trump administration to block the preliminary injunctions, saying the different lawsuits underway needed to play out.
The decision means that clinics that receive federal family planning grants called Title X — which pay for birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer screenings — will not be allowed to be housed in the same buildings as those that also provide abortions. The rules prohibit doctors who receive the funds from directly referring patients to abortions, leading critics to refer to it as a “gag rule.”
The Trump administration refers to the provision as the “Protect Life Rule,” and its supporters say that funding for family planning should not be used to help subsidize abortion providers.
The rule will go into effect everywhere except in Maryland, due to a lawsuit from Baltimore. The state legislature there also passed a bill that would reject the Title X funds if the Trump administration’s rules were attached to them.
Essentially this means that the Trump administration can reallocate federal funding away from Planned Parenthood because they perform abortions.
Politico wrote earlier this year that it could mean that tens of millions of federal family planning will be cut off from Planned Parenthood.
It’s not everything, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. And the fact that it came from the 9th Circuit is shocking.