Another Victory for President Trump’s Protect Life Rule: 4th Circuit Lifts Last Statewide Injunction

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2019
CONTACT: Nicole Stacy
[email protected]

Similar Rules Stopping Taxpayer Funding of Abortion in Title X Were Upheld by SCOTUS Three Decades Ago

Washington, D.C. – Today a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed President Trump’s Protect Life Rule to go into effect in Maryland, lifting the last remaining state injunction against the rule. Last month a panel of the 9th Circuit granted the Trump administration’s request to lift state and nationwide injunctions while court cases proceed. Finalized earlier this year, the rule advances President Trump’s promise to stop taxpayer funding of abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, who will no longer receive Title X funding if they choose not to comply.

The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) celebrated the ruling in a statement:

“Yet another federal court has delivered victory for President Trump and the majority of Americans who do not want to fund the abortion industry with their tax dollars,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “A strong majority of Americans have consistently voiced their opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion – it is even unpopular among Democrats and self-described pro-choice Americans. Without reducing Title X funding by a dime, the Protect Life Rule simply draws a bright line between abortion and family planning, stopping abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood from treating Title X as their private slush fund. Similar regulations were upheld by the Supreme Court nearly three decades ago. After this latest vindication, we are even more confident the Trump administration will prevail.”

Represented by the Thomas More Society, SBA List has filed amicus briefs in support of the Protect Life Rule and the federal government in every case brought to date.

A Marist poll in January of this year found that, by a double-digit margin, a majority of all Americans oppose any taxpayer funding of abortion (54 percent to 39 percent).

Under the Protect Life Rule abortion centers cannot serve as taxpayer-funded family planning centers (“co-location”). In addition, Title X locations cannot refer for abortion. The Protect Life Rule does not prohibit Title X providers from providing neutral, nondirective counseling about abortion and does not prevent anyone from obtaining Title X services. It does not reduce family planning funding by a dime. Instead, it directs tax dollars to Title X centers that do not promote or perform abortions, such as the growing number of community and rural health centers that far outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities. Similar regulations were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1991 in Rust v. Sullivan (500 U.S. 173).

SBA List is a network of more than 787,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.

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