Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and 43 other senators in a comment to Secretary Alex Azar at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) strongly opposing the Trump Administration’s proposal to restrict the Title X family planning program and reduce access to health care for millions of women. The senators called on the Administration to reverse course and revoke its planned changes.
“As U.S. Senators, we are deeply concerned the Trump-Pence Administration’s proposed rule to update the Title X program includes a number of significant changes that run counter to Congress’s intent in establishing the program and, like so many other harmful steps this Administration is taking, will make it significantly harder for women across the country to get the health care they need. The proposed rule would allow politicians with extreme ideological views to interfere with women’s personal health care decisions, undermine the provider-patient relationship, and leave women’s access to health care increasingly dependent on how much money they have and where they live. The proposed rule would have devastating impacts on women across our country and we urge you to reverse course and revoke it,” wrote the Senators.
In their comment, the Senators outlined the many ways the proposed changes from the Trump-Pence Administration would undermine the Title X program’s ability to provide family planning services to people across the country. The Senators blasted proposed changes that would make providers that serve millions of women ineligible for funding and a new domestic gag rule that would interfere with providers’ ability to give patients information about their full range of reproductive health care options. They also criticized changes that would undermine requirements that Title X-funded providers only offer services that are “medically approved.”
The proposed rule restricting women’s access to reproductive health care comes as President Trump attempts to appoint an extreme Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who anti-abortion groups vetted and approved as a fifth vote to turn the Supreme Court against women’s constitutional rights by striking down Roe v. Wade.
Full text of comment is available here.
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