Murray Sounds Alarm As Court Allows Trump Gag Rule Jeopardizing Women’s Health Care To Take Effect
Murray: “This decision puts millions of lives at risk and lets politicians interfere with women’s ability to get the health care they need.”
Decision undermines the Title X family planning program and throws health care for millions of women into jeopardy by allowing the Trump Administration’s gag rule to go into effect
Changes block providers at Title X-funded health centers from fully discussing patients’ reproductive health care options and aim to shut Planned Parenthood out of the program
Four million people—disproportionately young people, low-income women, and women of color—seek care at Title X-funded centers each year
The Trump Administration's gag rule is one of many recent steps from Republican lawmakers to prioritize ideology over women’s health and personal medical decisions—including recent state efforts to pass extreme restrictions on safe, legal abortion
The Trump Administration is also taking steps to weaken protections against health care discrimination and arguing in court to strike down health care and protections for millions of families
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement in response to news the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Trump Administration’s Title X changes may go into effect while they are challenged in court.
“This decision puts millions of lives at risk and lets politicians interfere with women’s ability to get the health care they need. President Trump’s gag rule is deeply harmful and inconsistent with what Democrats and Republicans have agreed the Title X family planning program should do—it makes it harder for women to get care like birth control, STI screenings, cancer screenings, and more. This gag rule represents a huge step backwards for women’s health, part of a larger pattern of cruelty on health care from President Trump and Republicans. I’m going to continue pushing back against this harmful rule in Congress and demanding Republicans explain to families across the country why they want to deny people access to basic care.”
Under the Trump Administration’s rule, health providers at the nearly 4,000 health centers receiving Title X funding would be gagged from informing patients about the full range of reproductive health care options available to them, including safe, legal abortion. In an effort to shut out Planned Parenthood, the rule also imposes new, medically unnecessary requirements on Title X-funded health centers that will make health care less accessible for the four million patients who rely on Title X health centers for basic health care services like birth control, STI screenings, cancer screenings, and more.
The Trump Administration’s gag rule is just one of many ways the Trump-Pence Administration and Republicans are working to strip health care from women and patients across the country. Earlier this week, the Trump Administration argued in court to scrap health care and protections for millions of families in the case Texas v. United States. The Administration has also taken steps to weaken protections against discrimination in health care and several Republican-led states have worked to pass extreme restrictions on safe, legal abortion.
###
