Washington state is suing to protect its residents from the Trump administration’s new family planning gag rule. “Patients should be able to make well-informed decisions based on complete, unbiased information about their health care options,” state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said, announcing the lawsuit. “Those decisions must stay between patients and their medical providers—not the federal government.”
The Trump administration is blocking family planning providers funded through the federal Title X program from even providing abortion referrals—providers in the program are already required to keep a strict separation between Title X funding and abortion services, but now that division will extend to referrals. More than half of Washington’s 91,284 Title X patients are at or below the federal poverty line, and “The Washington Department of Health estimates that services provided to these patients prevented over 18,000 unintended pregnancies and over 6,000 abortions, resulting in savings for the state of more than $113 million.”
Ferguson’s lawsuit argues that the gag rule is arbitrary and capricious, “Violates a provision of the Affordable Care Act that that protects providers and patients from government interference in the health care relationship,” and “Unlawfully ignores Congress’ clear direction that federally funded pregnancy counseling be non-directive.” Additionally the suit charges violations of physicians’ free-speech rights and women’s rights under Roe v. Wade.