By Megan Rowe
The Spokesman-Review
Washington state intends to file a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s new policy that would make it more difficult for women seeking abortions to get information.
Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Monday that he would be filing the federal lawsuit in Spokane once it is entered in the federal register.
“If implemented, the Trump administration’s new rule will reduce women’s family planning options, interfere in doctor patient relationships and inevitably leave many vulnerable women with no health care access at all,” Ferguson said during a news conference.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would stop family planning clinics that receive federal funding from referring women to abortion clinics.
The new policy also would require family planning clinics receiving federal funds to be housed separately from abortion providers. The requirement would force many clinics to find new offices or undertake extensive remodels to comply.
The policy has been criticized by Planned Parenthood, which said it violates Title X, a law passed in 1970 meant to widen access to family planning and other health care needs including cancer and diabetes screenings.
“The law was very clear when it was designed that health care providers receiving funds cannot withhold info from patients about their pregnancy options so this rule would reverse that,” said Paul Dillon, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Eastern Washington.
Federal law prohibits taxpayer funds to pay for abortions, except in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.
Religious conservatives and abortion opponents have long complained that Title X has been used to indirectly subsidize abortion providers, according to the Associated Press.
Chris Plante, policy director of the Christian group Family Policy Institute of Washington, told the AP that the legal challenge was “wrongheaded.” He said the new policy “simply returns the Title X regulations back to their original legislative intent: ‘None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.’ “
“A doctor can still talk about abortion,” Plante said, according the AP. “The doctor simply can’t say, ‘There’s an abortion provider three streets down, turn left.’ “
The new Trump administration rule also would require physicians to provide a pregnant woman with a neonatal referral, whether she wanted it or not.
“The government should not tell patients what medical care is right for them,” Ferguson said. “These sensitive decisions should remain between patients and their medical providers. The Trump administration’s new rule interferes with that relationship, and with patients making well informed health care decisions based on complete, unbiased information.”
Dillon believes the rule targets Planned Parenthood, and points to the fact that Planned Parenthood serves many patients using Title X assistance.
According to a study by the Washington Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, if Planned Parenthood were excluded from receiving such federal funding, the remaining family planning clinics would have to increase their contraceptive caseloads by 406 percent.
Ferguson has repeatedly sued the Trump administration regarding other matters, including the travel ban.
He intends to seek a court order blocking the new policy from taking effect. Eastern Washington has 20 counties, 11 of which would be left without Title X providers, he said.
Ferguson also said the Trump administration policy violates the Affordable Care Act, which protects providers and patients from government interference, along with a federal law that requires doctors to provide information about abortion and prenatal care to patients in an unbiased manner, according to the AP.
