Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Monday that Delaware would join a national lawsuit challenging a new "gag rule" that would prevent family planning clinics from referring patients for abortions.

The rule could impact thousands of Delawareans who rely on family planning clinics and health centers that receive Title X funding, Jennings' office said.

Title X is the only federal grant program that funds family planning programs to help patients access contraception, cancer screenings, exams, and related health services, according to Jennings' office.

The Trump Administration’s rule change restricts providers and health care professionals from providing information or referrals for abortion services.

“Access to basic family planning should never be secondary to a political agenda,” Jennings said in a statement. “The Trump Administration’s efforts to undermine reproductive rights are cruel, ineffective, and harmful.

"Rather than preventing unwanted pregnancies or promoting effective alternatives to abortion, the Title X changes threaten millions of people’s access to family planning services, restrict doctors’ freedom to provide quality medical advice, and threaten to close down health care facilities that are often the only show in town for low-income or uninsured Americans.”

Donald Trump seeksnew rule restricting federal funding for abortion providers

Opinion: Trump's Title X plan requires ineffective birth control most women don't want

Title X funds 55 sites throughout Delaware, including federally qualified health centers, community clinics, state clinics, three Planned Parenthood affiliates, university health centers and 21 school-based health centers, Jennings' office said.

In 2017, Delaware’s Title X providers served 19,132 patients – both men and women.

Planned Parenthood intends to fight the rule

Planned Parenthood of Delaware said last week it would be impossible for it to continue using the program if the rule stands.

"We won’t withhold critical information from our patients," it said in a statement. "We will continue to provide care to everyone who needs it."

Ruth Lytle-Barnaby, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Delaware, said her organization sees more than a third of Title X patients in the state.

"We will use all means we have to fight this," she said.

Once it is published in the Federal Register, the final version of the rule will go into effect after 60 days if there isn't a court injunction.

Title X funds already are not allowed to be used for abortion services, but rather for sexually transmitted infection testing/treatment, HIV testing, birth control, cancer screenings, annual preventive visits, pregnancy tests and pap smears.

Planned Parenthood launches its largest voter contact campaign formidterm election

Supreme Court won't consider state efforts to defund PlannedParenthood

Under the final rule, any provider that performs abortions must be financially and physically separate, forcing health centers to build new facilities where staff can counsel on, refer and provide abortions.

Delaware lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and Newark Mayor Polly Sierer have already signed onto letters opposing the rule.

Notably, Jennings' office said, Title X facilities and funding were instrumental in Delaware’s Contraceptive Access Now (CAN) initiative.

From 2014 to 2017 it helped increase long-acting reversible contraceptive use from 13.7 percent to 31.5 percent among Delaware Title X family planning clients ages 20 to 39.

This resulted in a 24 percent simulated decrease in unintended pregnancies among this population according to Upstream USA, a partner nonprofit.

Chris Plante, policy director of the Christian group Family Policy Institute of Washington, called the legal challenge "wrongheaded" and 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. "The doctor simply can't say, 'There's an abortion provider three streets down, turn left.'"

While the new rule would permit clinic staff to discuss abortion with clients, it would no longer be required that they do so. If patients ask for an abortion referral, staff would be required to give a list of primary care providers with no indication as to which provide abortions.

The list would have to include providers who do not offer abortions, and it could not include clinics or organizations that aren't primary care providers.

Some have called the new rule "a transparent attack on Planned Parenthood," which has long been opposed by anti-abortion advocates. Religious conservatives and abortion opponents have long complained that Title X has been used to indirectly subsidize abortion providers.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure, but federal laws prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.

Joining Delaware and Oregon in the lawsuit are Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

MUST-READ STORIES

How Delaware mom went from keeping cancer secret to talking in Times Square PSA

Missing D.C. Uber, Lyft driver found dead in Trolley Square

'She's in the trunk': Court docs give grisly details in kidnapping,death of Jassy Correia

Associated Press reporter Gene Johnson contributed to this story. Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.