Mary Margaret Olohan
- The Democratic-led COVID-19 relief package could send up to $50 million to abortion providers through Title X family planning funds.
- The $1.9 trillion bill would appropriate $50 million to the Department Health and Human Services (HHS) under section 1001 of the Public Health Service Act, which refers to Title X family planning services.
- Under recent changes from the Biden administration, HHS could send that money to abortion clinics, a policy expert told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Democratic-led COVID-19 relief package could send up to $50 million to abortion providers through Title X family planning funds.
The $1.9 trillion bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives early Saturday morning, would appropriate $50 million to the Department Health and Human Services (HHS) under section 1001 of the Public Health Service Act, which refers to Title X family planning services. Under recent changes from the Biden administration, HHS could send that money to abortion clinics, a policy expert told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“This is a huge red flag in this bill,” Rachel Bovard, Senior Director of Policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute, told the DCNF. “It will go to Planned Parenthood clinics.”
Former President Donald Trump ordered in July 2019 that family planning clinics be stripped of their Title X funding if they refer women for abortions. The president’s rules required that organizations that perform abortions and make abortion referrals do so in separate buildings from those that receive Title X federal funds.
President Joe Biden’s administration quickly took steps to reverse the policy.
In a Jan. 28 executive order, the new president ordered HHS to perform a review of Title X family planning regulations and and consider “as soon as practicable, whether to suspend, revise, or rescind, or publish for notice and comment proposed rules suspending, revising, or rescinding, those regulations.”