FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 22, 2021
Contact: Prudence Robertson, [email protected] | 240-672-2828
Similar Reagan-Era Title X Regs Previously Deemed Constitutional by the High Court
Washington, D.C. – Today the U. S. Supreme Court announced it will hear the case Cochran v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. The case concerns the constitutionality of the federal Protect Life Rule, which prevents forced taxpayer funding of abortion businesses via Title X. Under the Protect Life Rule, abortion centers are prohibited from operating as taxpayer-funded family-planning centers. In addition, Title X-funded locations cannot refer for abortion.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently blocked the Protect Life Rule from going into effect in Maryland, while the 9th Circuit upheld it. The resulting “circuit split” can only be resolved by the Supreme Court. Similar regulations to the Protect Life Rule were upheld by the Supreme Court in the 1991 Rust v. Sullivan case.
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser offered the following comment:
“We are confident the Supreme Court will rule that the Trump administration and future pro-life administrations have the right to disentangle Title X taxpayer funding from the abortion industry.
“Abortion is not ‘family planning’ and a strong majority of Americans – including 65% of Independents and nearly one third of Democrats – oppose taxpayer funding of abortion. The Protect Life Rule honors their will and the plain language of the Title X statute by stopping the funneling of Title X taxpayer dollars to the abortion industry, without reducing family planning funding by a dime.”
Represented by the Thomas More Society, SBA List has filed amicus briefs in support of the Protect Life Rule in several lower-court cases to date.
SBA List is a network of 900,000 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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