Biden lifts abortion referral ban on family planning clinics

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday reversed a ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics, lifting a Trump-era restriction as political and legal battles over abortion grow sharper from Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Department of Health and Human Services said its new regulation will restore the federal family planning program to the way it ran under the Obama administration, when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.

Groups representing the clinics said they hope the Biden administration action will lead hundreds of service providers that left in protest over Trump's policies to return, helping to stabilize a longstanding program that has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic on top of ideological battles.

Known as Title X, the taxpayer-funded program makes available more than $250 million a year to clinics to provide birth control and basic health care services mainly to low-income women.

Under then-President Donald Trump, clinics were barred from referring patients for abortions, prompting a mass exit by service providers affiliated with Planned Parenthood, as well as several states and other independent organizations.

Women’s groups labeled the Trump policy a “gag rule,” and medical organizations called it a violation of the clinician-patient relationship.

But religious and social conservatives praised the policy for imposing a strict separation between family planning services and abortion. Under federal law, clinics could not use federal money to pay for abortions.

In 2018, the family planning clinics served about 3.9 million clients, but HHS estimates that number fell by nearly 40 percent after the Trump policy.

The upheaval may have led to more than 180,000 unintended pregnancies, the agency said.

In August 2019, officials of Planned Parenthood North Central States noted it no longer would have the benefit of Title X funding for health services at its five Iowa clinics, including its Iowa City location. At the time, that equaled to about a $1 million loss of funds in Iowa for services that included contraceptives, cancer screening, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, officials said.

Biden campaigned on a promise to overturn the restrictions on family planning clinics, but abortion was not a central issue in the 2020 presidential race. It may become one in the 2022 midterm elections to determine who controls Congress.

Restrictive state laws in Texas, Mississippi and elsewhere have prompted a mobilization by abortion rights supporters, who fear a conservative-leaning Supreme Court will overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationally.

Hundreds of abortion-themed protests were held around the country Saturday, including one that brought thousands of abortion rights supporters to the steps of the court.

The Supreme Court has allowed the Texas law to take effect, but has not ruled on the substantive legal questions behind that statute, which bans most abortions in the state. The justices will hear arguments Dec. 1 on the Mississippi law, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The new abortion referral policy for family planning clinics will take effect Nov. 8.