by Scott McClallen
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 21 state attorneys general Tuesday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision to uphold an administration Title X rule from President Donald Trump.
Pro-life opponents disagree.
Chris Gast, communications director for Right to Life Michigan, told The Center Square the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld the regulations in the 1991 case of Rust v. Sullivan, but were never fully implemented as President Bill Clinton suspended and reenacted new regulations lasting through Trump’s 2019 decision.
“There’s really no legal argument that our Attorney General or anyone already has,” Gast said. “The Supreme Court has already spoken.”
Gast argued the original Title X Family planning is clear: abortion can’t be used as a method of family planning.
“This is about as open and shut as it gets,” Gast said.
Nessel’s office said that in 13 states, more than half of Title X grantees have withdrawn from the program, and several states no longer have any Title X providers because they don’t offer family planning counseling or birth control, which burdened residents’ need for healthcare.
Nessel joined a cohort of states, including the attorneys general of California, New York, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“The new Title X rule removes valuable health care programming for some of our most vulnerable populations. That’s why my colleagues and I are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the lower court ruling that allowed this damaging new protocol to proceed,” Nessel said in a statement.
“This administration has consistently shown a lack of concern for programs that benefit the health of low-income women and families, and this new rule adds another blemish to that tarnished track record.”
The coalition, led by a majority of Democrats, argues the rule restricts access to healthcare and birth control and prohibits doctors from telling patients their healthcare options, including abortion referrals.
The coalition joins the American Medical Association, the Oregon Medical Association, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, and Essential Access Health in challenging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision.
In 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services re-adopted a Ronald Reagan-era rule changing the Title X program, including:
- Limiting the information that can be shared with a patient at a Title X clinic
- Prohibiting referrals for abortion
- Mandating referrals for prenatal care for all patients
- Requiring clinics providing Title X-funded services to be physically and financially separate from any program offering abortion care
Before 2019, the Title X program funded pro-abortion public health services, including family planning counseling, access to FDA-approved contraceptive methods, pelvic exams, and screenings for high blood pressure, anemia, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and cervical and breast cancer.
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Scott McClallen is a reporter for The Center Square.
Photo “Dana Nessel” by Michigan Attorney General’s Office. Background Photo “Supreme Court” by David CC BY 2.0.
