Attorney General Raoul Seeks Supreme Court Review Of Federal Government’s Title X Rule

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a coalition of 22 states today in filing a petition seeking the U.S. Supreme Court’s review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit’s decision to uphold a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Title X rule that would effectively dismantle Title X’s family planning program.

Raoul and the coalition join the American Medical Association, the Oregon Medical Association, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, and Essential Access Health in petitioning the Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit’s decision. The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Title X rule restricts access to critical preventive health care, such as birth control. The rule also prohibits providers from referring patients for abortions or offering patients complete information about family planning options.

“Women should have the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions in consultation with a medical provider, regardless of income,” Raoul said. “The federal government’s changes to Title X would most negatively impact low-income women and families. I will continue to oppose these attempts to strip access to vital health care services from those who can least afford to lose them.”

The Title X family planning program is instrumental to the delivery of preventive and reproductive health care to low-income women and families. In 2019, HHS issued a rule imposing major changes on the Title X program, including:

• Limiting the information that can be shared with a patient visiting a Title X clinic.
• Prohibiting referrals for abortion, even when a patient specifically requests one.
• Mandating prenatal care for all patients, even if care is not requested.
• Prohibiting providers of Title X-funded services from being housed in facilities that also provide abortion care.

Before 2019, the Title X program funded a wide array of critical public health services, including family planning counseling, access to FDA-approved contraceptive methods, pelvic exams and crucial screenings for high blood pressure, anemia, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and cervical and breast cancer. HHS’ new Title X rule, however, has undermined the Title X program nationwide.

In 13 states, more than 50 percent of Title X grantees have withdrawn from the program, and several states no longer have any Title X providers. New providers have not filled the gap in access to important health care services caused by the withdrawals because these providers do not provide family planning counseling or birth control. As a result, states have faced increased burdens to meet residents’ needs for essential health care.

Joining Attorney General Raoul in filing the petition are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

More like this: