This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump’s administration will reinstate a decades-old policy that will strip federal funds from family planning clinics providing abortion or related services, marking its latest salvo to curtail women’s reproductive rights.

The Department of Health and Human Services will announce the proposal on Friday, an administration official confirmed to the Guardian. The move would revive a policy first implemented by Ronald Reagan in 1988, which effectively barred reproductive health organizations that received federal grants from providing or even discussing abortion with patients.

The policy has been derided as a “gag rule” by abortion rights supporters and medical groups, and it is likely to trigger lawsuits that could keep it from taking effect.

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“This is an attempt to take away women’s basic rights, period,” Dawn Laguens, the executive vice-president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.

She added: “Everyone has the right to access information about their health care – including information about safe, legal abortion – and every woman deserves the best medical care and information, no matter how much money she makes or where she lives. No matter what. They won’t get it under this rule.”

The Reagan-era rule never went into effect as written, although the US supreme court ruled that it was an appropriate use of executive power. The policy was rescinded under Bill Clinton, and a new rule went into effect that required “nondirective” counseling to include a range of options for women.

Federal funds are already barred from being used for abortion services under current US law.

The move will galvanize activists on both sides of the abortion debate ahead of the congressional midterm elections.

Doctors’ groups and abortion rights supporters say a ban on counseling women trespasses on the doctor-patient relationship. They also believe such rules would prevent patients from being able to obtain birth control or other preventive care from reproductive health care providers, and undermine access to safe, legal abortion, particularly among low-income women.



Abortion opponents have long argued that a taxpayer-funded family planning program should have no connection whatsoever to abortion.

“The notion that you would withhold information from a patient does not uphold or preserve their dignity,” said Jessica Marcella of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which represents family planning clinics. “I cannot imagine a scenario in which public health groups would allow this effort to go unchallenged.”

She said requiring family planning clinics to be physically separate from facilities in which abortion is provided would disrupt services for women across the country.

Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America also backed the move. She said: “Abortion is not healthcare or birth control and many women want natural healthcare choices, rather than hormone-induced changes.”



Abortion opponents claim the federal family planning program in effect cross-subsidizes abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood, whose clinics are also major recipients of grants for family planning and basic preventive care. Hawkins’s group is circulating a petition to urge lawmakers in Congress to support the Trump administration’s proposal.

Known as title X, the nation’s family-planning program serves about 4 million women a year through clinics, at a cost to taxpayers of about $260m. Planned Parenthood clinics also qualify for Title X grants, but they must keep the family-planning money separate from funds used to pay for abortions.



The Republican-led Congress has unsuccessfully tried to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood, and the Trump administration has vowed to religious and social conservatives that it would keep up the effort.

In one of his first acts as president, Trump reinstated a “global gag rule” policy that restricted the US government from providing funds to international family-planning organizations offering abortion-related services or information about the procedure.



Global health advocates have since bemoaned the closure of abortion facilities overseas, with developing areas the most acutely impacted. Trump later expanded upon the action, affecting nearly $9bn in funding to combat global health issues such as HIV/Aids, Zika and malaria.

The Associated Press contributed to this report