After three hours of oral arguments Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane said he will issue a temporary injunction blocking the Trump regime’s domestic “gag rule” forbidding healthcare providers who refer patients for abortion services from receiving family-planning funds under Title X. Federal funding for most abortions has long been prohibited. This is the first in a number of lawsuits filed across the country challenging the rule change in the federal program that makes reproductive healthcare services a reality for low-income patients who can’t easily afford them otherwise. The wide range of family planning services funded under Title X serves some 4 million low-income people annually.
Plaintiffs had asked for a nationwide injunction. But McShane indicated he is reluctant to establish a "national health care'’ policy. We’ll have to wait to see how far this Obama-appointed judge goes when he writes his order. The U.S. Justice Department wants it to apply solely to the plaintiffs in the case. There are pending lawsuits in the matter in four other states.
McShane said the rule, which is set to go into effect May 3, represents an "arrogant assumption'' that government is better suited to direct health care instead of providers.
The judge said he will also grant a preliminary injunction to stop another Title X change, the rule forbidding federally funded family planning clinics from being housed in the same place as abortion providers. It’s long been a contention of forced-birthers that Title X funds subsidize abortion providers by housing them together in the same facilities.
The lawsuit was brought by 20 states whose attorneys argued that the gag rule attacks Planned Parenthood and violates the Affordable Care Act, which bars “unreasonable barriers to the ability of individuals to obtain appropriate medical care.” Maxine Bernstein reports:
McShane said the so-called "gag rule''—barring physicians from referring patients who don’t want to continue their pregnancies to an abortion provider—prevents doctors from behaving like medical professionals.
The judge also found that it would create a class of low-income women who couldn’t receive a full range of medical care options, foster a "geographic vacuum'' in reproductive health care clinics and likely cause an increase in abortions due to more unwanted pregnancies.