A federal judge in Washington blocked a rule of Trump Administration on Thursday that prohibits the transfer of patients to abortion providers from taxpayer-funded family planning clinics.
The preliminary order prevents the implementation of a policy on the vehement opposition of abortion supporters who have declared it to be “gag rule” to silence the communication between doctors and patients about the options for abortion nationwide s from May 3.
The Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in an announcement to the decision “The ruling today guarantees that clinics across the country can remain open and maintain high quality, unbiased health care for women.”
In the case of challenging US restrictions, the Washington State was appointed a claimant. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Title X Program supports low-income women with cost of reproduction and family planning.
No response was immediately made by either the White House or HHS.
The ruling in Yakima, eastern Washington, of US District Judges, Stanley Bastian capped a hearing where both side submitted oral arguments.
In his ruling, Bastian wrote: ‘ There is no public interest in continuing the unlawful agency action.
“The plaintiff’s arguments have been sound that they are likely to succeed on the merits,” Bastian also wrote.
He said that “in the absence of a preliminary injunction the plaintiffs will likely be irreparably harmed.”
A federal judge in Oregon said that earlier this week in a similar, but separate, proceeding brought by 20 States and the District of Columbia he intended to grant a preliminary injunction. In California and Maine there are two other lawsuits challenging Title X restrictions.
The limitation of the provision of abortions and the additional health services to women in Title X is intended to fulfill Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to end federal support to Planned Parenthood.
Congress in 2017 allocated $ 286 million in Title X grants to Planned Parenthood and other health centers in order to ensure that low income women receive birth control, disease screening and other reproductive health services.
The funds are already prohibited for abortions, but opponents of abortions have long complained that the money actually subsidizes the whole of Planned Parenthood.
Around 40 per cent of the four million people who rely on Title X funding annually receive the Planned Parenthood healthcare services, which it has argued are unable to absorb the patients of community-based health centres.
The new rule would prohibit the referrals of abortion patients as a method of family planning in clinics that receive Title X funding. The regulation would also require a financial and physical separation between Title X-funded and abortion facilities.
The plan does not prohibit abortion counselling but guarantees that the taxpayer’s funding does not support clinics that perform the procedures. Abortion opponents argued.
