(Reuters) - A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday blocked a Trump administration rule that would prohibit taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers.

An exam room at the Planned Parenthood South Austin Health Center in Austin, Texas, U.S. June 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ilana Panich-Linsman

The preliminary injunction bars enforcement nationwide of a policy that was due to go into effect on May 3 over the vehement objections of abortion supporters who have decried it as a “gag rule” designed to silence doctor-patient communications about abortion options.

“Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement announcing the decision.

Washington state was a named plaintiff in the case challenging restrictions proposed by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to its Title X program subsidizing reproductive healthcare and family planning costs for low-income women.

Neither the White House nor HHS immediately responded to requests from Reuters for comment.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, in eastern Washington, capped a hearing in which oral arguments were presented by both sides.

“There is no public interest in perpetuating unlawful agency action,” Bastian wrote in his ruling.

Bastian also wrote that the “Plaintiffs have presented reasonable arguments that indicate they are likely to succeed on the merits.”

He said that the plaintiffs “are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction.”

A federal judge in Oregon earlier this week said he intended to grant a preliminary injunction in a similar but separate lawsuit brought by 20 states and the District of Columbia. Two more lawsuits challenging the Title X restrictions are pending in California and Maine.

The restrictions are aimed at fulfilling Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to end federal support for Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides abortions and other health services for women under Title X.

Congress appropriated $286 million in Title X grants in 2017 to Planned Parenthood and other health centers to provide birth control, screening for diseases and other reproductive health and counseling to low-income women.

The funding is already prohibited from being used for abortions, but abortion opponents have long complained that the money in effect subsidizes Planned Parenthood as a whole.

Planned Parenthood provides healthcare services to about 40 percent of the 4 million people who rely on Title X funding annually, and the organization has argued that community health centers would be unable to absorb its patients.

Under the new rule, clinics that receive Title X funding would be barred from referring patients for abortion as a method of family planning. The regulation also would require financial and physical separation between facilities funded by Title X and those providing abortions.

Abortion opponents have argued the plan would not ban abortion counseling but would ensure that taxpayer funding does not support clinics that also perform the procedure.</s>A federal judge has temporarily blocked new restrictions on abortion providers that receive federal family planning funds, including one in Maine.

The rule from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department would ban family planning clinics that receive federal Title X funds from making abortion referrals — what critics are calling a “gag rule.” Those clinics would also be barred from providing abortion services in the same buildings where they provide other health services such as cancer and STD screening, a requirement that would increase costs for many providers.

The proposed rule prompted lawsuits across the country. In March, Maine Family Planning and the global Center for Reproductive Rights filed its own complaint against the federal government in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The plaintiffs argue that the rule violates the constitutional rights of women and medical professionals, and that it was adopted without the justification required under the law. They said the expense associated with the new rule would force Maine Family Planning to stop offering abortion services at all but one of its family planning clinics in the state. Under that scenario, Mainers would have only three publicly accessible locations for abortion care across the state — the flagship Maine Family Planning Clinic in Augusta, the Mabel Wadsworth Center in Bangor and the Planned Parenthood location in Portland.

Later that month, they also filed a motion for preliminary injunction, which asked a judge to stop the rule from taking effect in May as planned. Then U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian granted a similar motion Thursday in response to lawsuits from the state of Washington and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. His sweeping order barred the Trump administration from implementing the rule anywhere in the country while the legal challenges are pending.

With that decision, Maine Family Planning withdrew its own motion, saying it was no longer necessary. But the organization pledged in a statement to keep fighting the new rule.

“MFP is relieved that the Domestic Gag Rule has been temporarily blocked,” Maine Family Planning President and CEO George Hill said. “Along with our Title X allies nationwide, we’re breathing a sigh of relief today, knowing our robust network can continue to provide high quality, affordable, and evidence-based reproductive health care as it has done for almost 50 years.

“The Gag Rule threatens access to essential health care services for low-income and rural Mainers, and that’s why we’re battling it in court – for our patients and our neighbors. Our fight continues.”

The Title X program serves about 4 million people annually. The grants fund family planning services like contraception and STD screening to low-income individuals for free or at low cost. In 2017, the most recent year data is available, the program administered more than $280 million in federal grants to clinics. Federal laws prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions in most circumstances, so Title X grants do not pay for those services.

Maine Family Planning receives $2 million annually in Title X funding. The agency operates its own 18 clinics and shares the federal funds with 29 other health centers across Maine. Attorneys from the Center for Reproductive Rights said last month that they chose to mount a legal challenge in U.S. District Court in Portland because Maine Family Planning is the sole grantee in the largely rural state, and low-income patients here have few other options for those services.

A spokeswoman said Maine Family Planning provides about 500 abortions each year.

Still, anti-abortion activists have argued that organizations with any connection to abortion should not receive federal fund at all. A Department of Health and Human Services press release announcing the new rule in March said it will “provide needed clarity” for the public and for clinics about what is allowed and not allowed by law.

“The final rule ensures compliance with statutory program integrity provisions governing the program and, in particular, the statutory prohibition on funding programs where abortion is a method of family planning,” the release stated.

It was not clear Friday what the next event will be in the Maine Family Planning lawsuit.

Megan Gray can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

 [email protected]

 Twitter: mainemegan</s>A U.S. District Court judge in Eastern Washington slapped a nationwide preliminary injunction on the Trump administration's Title X "gag rule" that would bar family planning clinics that receive federal dollar from offering abortion services or abortion referrals.

"There is no public interest in perpetuating unlawful agency action," Judge Stanley Bastian said in delivering the injunction.

The injunction was sought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who chose an Eastern Washington venue because the Title X order threatened to force closure of family planning clinics and deny health services to women in the state's less populated counties.

Gov. Jay Inslee, on Twitter, reacted saying: "This is a major victory for millions of Americans whose health care is at stake under President Trump's dangerous and legally indefensible gag rule."

A second federal judge, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane, heard arguments in an Oregon challenge to the gag rule earlier this week, and indicated that he, too, would weigh in with an injunction. He described the Trump rule as "a ham fisted approach to public policy."

Enacted in 1970 during the Nixon Administration, Title X is the federal funding program for reproductive health care, cancer screenings and family programs for low-income women across the country.

The program has always prohibited use of federal dollars for paying for abortions. But the Trump "gag rule" goes much further. It prohibits clinics from offering abortion services or referrals. It puts a physical wall between clinics and abortion services.

Clinics providing abortions must have separate physical entrances, entirely separate treatment facilities, keep separate books, and employ separate staff. The "gag rule" has been slated to go into effect on May 3.

"Today's ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased health care to women," said Ferguson, who has filed three-dozen lawsuits against Trump administration policies.

He tweeted Thursday that he's come out on top 21 times.

"Title X clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, provide essential services," he added. "Now they can keep serving women while we continue to fight to keep the federal government out of the exam room."

The injunction is not a final action in the AG's legal challenge to the "gag" rule.

In order to issue an injunction, however, the federal judge must conclude that a lawsuit, such as Ferguson's against the "gag rule," is likely to succeed -- and that the rule, if not blocked, would cause irreparable harm to the state and its citizens.

The stakes are high, argued Jennifer Allen, head of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest.

"This gag rule is political: Nothing about the rule supports or advances health care access," Allen argued.

"Family planning is a basic economic for women and working families in Washington State," "Families are strongest when people can make health care decisions that are best for them."

A total of 20 suits against the "gag rule" have been filed across the country.</s>Judge To Block Trump Administration’s Changes To Family Planning Funding, Calling The Rule ‘Ham-Fisted,’ ‘Arrogant’

Planned Parenthood and the American Medical Association brought the case against the Trump administration in February after it finalized changes to the Title X family planning grant program that banned participating providers from referring women for abortions. U.S. District Judge Michael McShane was uncertain about the scope of his injunction, saying he was reluctant to set national health care policy.

Reuters: U.S. Federal Judge To Block Trump's New Abortion Rule: Media, Activists 

 A federal judge in the U.S. state of Oregon will block a move by the Trump administration to cut off federal money to family planning clinics that offer abortion or refer women to abortion providers, activists and media reports said late on Tuesday. President Donald Trump's new Title X rule, set to take effect in May, would halt government funds for Planned Parenthood clinics that subsidize birth control for low-income women, and other clinics that provide abortions. (4/24)

The Associated Press: US Judge In Oregon To Block New Trump Abortion Policy 

 U.S. District Judge Michael McShane made the comments after more than three hours of arguments in a lawsuit brought by 20 states and the District of Columbia, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported . The states say the rule change, due to take effect May 3, is a transparent attack on Planned Parenthood and a violation of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits "unreasonable barriers to the ability of individuals to obtain appropriate medical care." "At the heart of these rules is an arrogant assumption that the government is better suited to direct women's health care than their providers," Oregon Public Broadcasting quoted the judge as saying. (4/23)

The Hill: Oregon Judge Says He Will Block Trump Abortion Measures 

 The changes, most of which are slated to go into effect May 3, also lift a requirement that Title X grant recipients counsel women on abortion as an option. The rules also would require that grant recipients be financially and physically separate from abortion providers, making hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics across the country ineligible for the funding. While federal funds can't go toward abortions, the Trump administration has argued that money is fungible and any going to Planned Parenthood could indirectly support the procedure. (Hellmann, 4/23)

The Oregonian: Judge In Oregon To Grant Preliminary Injunction Against Trump’s Title X Rules Restricting Abortion Access 

 They sought a national injunction. But the judge said he’s reluctant to set "national health care'’ policy and would describe the scope of his injunction in a formal written opinion soon. The U.S. Justice Department urged any injunction apply only to the plaintiffs in this case, noting at least four similar suits pending in other states. (Bernstein, 4/23)

Politico: Oregon Judge Says He’ll Block Trump’s Abortion Rule 

 The American Medical Association, in a statement, said the rule would have created obstacles to health care for low-income patients. "We are pleased the judge shared the AMA’s concern about the physician-patient relationship that the rule would have jeopardized,” said the physician group's president Barbara McAneny. Nearly two dozen states and several medical provider and advocacy groups have filed a series of suits to block the Title X change. Similar arguments were heard last week in San Francisco, and additional hearings will be held this week in Maine and Washington state. (Colliver, 4/23)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood: States Should Oppose Trump 'Gag Rule' 

 It's time for states with leaders who support abortion rights to go on the offensive against Trump administration attempts to restrict abortion that would reduce access to health care, the president of Planned Parenthood said Tuesday. "States are a critical backstop at a time when we have the Trump-Pence administration stripping away women's health and rights and when we cannot depend on the Supreme Court," said Dr. Leana Wen. (Witte, 4/23)

The CT Mirror: Legislators Say Lawsuit Won't Stall Effort To Regulate Faith-Based Pregnancy Centers 

 A faith-based pregnancy center in Willimantic has asked a federal judge for an injunction against a controversial Hartford ordinance that requires the religious facility and others like it to disclose whether their staff carry medical licenses. Critics of the faith-based institutions say their employees sometimes pose as medical workers to lure women and hand out misleading information about abortions. (Carlesso, 4/23)

The Associated Press: Judge Denies Republicans' Attempt To Join Abortion Lawsuit 

 A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Wisconsin Republican lawmakers' attempt to intervene in a Planned Parenthood lawsuit challenging the state's abortion restrictions, saying in a strongly worded order that they presented no evidence that the Democratic attorney general wouldn't adequately defend the laws. U.S. District Judge William Conley wrote in his ruling that the lawmakers failed to demonstrate a right to intervene and that allowing them to join "would likely infuse additional politics into an already politically-divisive area of the law and needlessly complicate this case." (4/23)

The Associated Press: Wisconsin Governor Will Veto Republican-Backed Abortion Bill 

 Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers promised to veto a Republican-authored bill that could send doctors to prison for life if they fail to give medical care to babies born alive after a failed abortion attempt. Republicans are sending similar bills in other states to liberal-leaning governors in an attempt to energize conservative voters. North Carolina's Democratic governor vetoed a similar bill last week. Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked a similar measure in February, leading President Donald Trump to say "they don't mind executing babies." (4/23)</s>A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction Thursday, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from imposing new anti-abortion restrictions on the use of federal family planning funds designed to assist 4 million low-income women.

The rule, promulgated in March by the Department of Health and Human Services, would have barred programs receiving the money from saying or doing anything to assist a patient in securing an abortion. Critics called it a “gag rule.”

Groups receiving money under the Title X program, roughly $286 million annually, were already prohibited from performing abortions with those funds. But under the new rule, they could no longer refer a patient for an abortion and would also have to maintain a”clear physical and financial separation” between services funded by the government and abortion services or referrals.

Planned Parenthood, a regular target of the President Trump and HHS, would have been particularly hard hit as the nation’s single largest provider of reproductive health services.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Wash., granted a preliminary injunction in response to lawsuits from the state of Washington and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, among others. The order was nationwide in scope, barring HHS from implementing the administration’s rule entirely and preserving the status quo.

Bastian said the restrictions were likely violations of the funding law, the Affordable Care Act and were “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act.

“It reverses long-standing positions of the Department without proper consideration of sound medical opinions and the economic and non-economic consequences,” he wrote.

The challengers, he said, have demonstrated that the rule “likely violates the central purpose of Title X, which is to equalize access to comprehensive, evidence-based, and voluntary family planning....

“It requires all pregnant patients to receive referrals for prenatal care, regardless of whether the patient wants to continue the pregnancy, and regardless of the best medical advice and treatment that might be recommended for that patient,” he wrote.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who brought the case, said the ruling “ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women. Title X clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, provide essential services – now they can keep serving women while we continue to fight to keep the federal government out of the exam room.”

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Oregon, Michael McShane, said he would issue an order against HHS as well, in a challenge brought by a group of 20 states and the American Medical Association. He indicated that his injunction might be narrow, however.

Both judges are appointees of President Barack Obama.

The decisions do not resolve the legal merits of the cases, but are based on the judges’ determination that the challengers are likely to prevail on the merits after a trial and that, in the meantime, allowing the restrictions to take effect would cause “irreparable harm” to the programs and those they serve.

“This is a major victory for millions of Americans whose healthcare is at stake under President Trump’s dangerous and legally indefensible gag rule,” Inslee said in a statement.

Clare Coleman, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said the rule would have “cut off access to contraception and sexual health care for millions. Today’s decision sends a message to this administration that it will not get away with making harmful changes to the nation’s family planning program, at the expense of people’s health care,” she said.

A spokeswoman for HHS said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

All the challenges contended that the Trump restrictions violated the Title X funding law, which among other things requires “nondirective” counseling that neither encourages or discourages women from getting an abortion and bars intervention in the communications between providers and patients.

In response, the administration said the restrictions were justified by a 1988 Supreme Court ruling in Rust v. Sullivan upholding restrictions on counseling under Title X.

The decision was one of at least 70 court defeats for the Trump administration since it took office, by a Washington Post count.

Some of those earlier cases also involved efforts to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood counseling programs aimed at helping teenage girls avoid pregnancy.

Trump administration bars clinics that provide abortions or abortion referrals from federal funding

21 states to file suit to block Trump administration’s abortion ‘gag rule’ in family planning

Is it a gag rule after all? A closer look at changes to Title X funding regarding abortion.</s>A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction Thursday, temporarily blocking the Trump administration from imposing new anti-abortion restrictions on the use of federal family planning funds designed to assist 4 million low-income women.

The rule, promulgated in March by the Department of Health and Human Services, would have barred programs receiving the money from saying or doing anything to advise or assist a patient about securing an abortion. Critics called it a “gag rule.”

Groups receiving money under the Title X program, roughly $286 million annually, were already prohibited from performing abortions with those funds. But under the new rule, they could no longer refer a patient for an abortion andwould also have to maintain a”clear physical and financial separation” between services funded by the government and abortion services or referrals.

Planned Parenthood, a regular target of the President Donald Trump and HHS, would have been particularly hard hit as the nation’s single largest provider of reproductive health services.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, granted a preliminary injunction in response to lawsuits from the state of Washington and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, among others. The order was nationwide in scope, barring HHS from implementing the administration’s rule entirely and preserving the status quo.

Bastian said the restrictions were likely violations of the funding law, the Affordable Care Act and were “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act.

“It reverses long-standing positions of the Department without proper consideration of sound medical opinions and the economic and non-economic consequences,” he wrote.

The challengers, he said, have demonstrated that the rule “likely violates the central purpose of Title X, which is to equalize access to comprehensive, evidence-based, and voluntary family planning.”

In a particularly scathing passage, Bastian wrote that the rule likely “creates unreasonable barriers for patients to obtain appropriate medical care; impedes timely access to health care services; interferes with communications regarding a full range of treatment options between the patient and their health care provider; restricts the ability of health care providers to provide full disclosure of all relevant information to patients” and “violates the principles of informed consent and the ethical standards of health care professions.”

He scolded HHS for offering “no reasoned analysis” for changing the long-standing rule.

The administration said the restrictions were justified by a 1988 Supreme Court ruling in Rust v. Sullivan upholding a gag rule on counseling under the family planning program. But Bastian said the law and regulations had been changed since then, making the government’s position some 30 years later out of date.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who brought the case, said the ruling “ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased health care to women. Title X clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, provide essential services — now they can keep serving women while we continue to fight to keep the federal government out of the exam room.”

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Oregon, Michael McShane, said he would issue an order against HHS as well, in a challenge brought by a group of 20 states and the American Medical Association. He indicated that his injunction might be narrow, however.

Both judges are appointees of President Barack Obama.

The decisions do not resolve the legal merits of the cases, but are based on the judges’ determination that the challengers are likely to prevail on the merits after a trial and that, in the meantime, allowing the restrictions to take effect would cause “irreparable harm” to the programs and those they serve.

“This is a major victory for millions of Americans whose healthcare is at stake under President Trump’s dangerous and legally indefensible gag rule,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement.

Clare Coleman, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said the rule would have “cut off access to contraception and sexual health care for millions. Today’s decision sends a message to this administration that it will not get away with making harmful changes to the nation’s family planning program, at the expense of people’s health care,” she said.

A spokeswoman for HHS said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
• McConnell will seek to raise tobacco minimum age to 21 The decision was one of at least 70 court defeats for the Trump administration since it took office, by a Washington Post count.

Some of those earlier cases also involved efforts to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood counseling programs aimed at helping teenage girls avoid pregnancy.</s>SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. judge in Washington state Thursday blocked new Trump administration rules that would provide additional hurdles for women seeking abortions, including by banning taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals.

Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima granted the preliminary injunction in cases brought by the state and abortion rights groups, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. The new rules were due to take effect May 3.

“Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women,” Ferguson, a Democrat, said in an emailed statement.

The ruling came two days after a federal judge in Oregon, hearing a separate challenge by 20 states, said he intended to at least partially block the rules. That judge, Michael McShane, suggested he was reluctant to issue a nationwide injunction, but said the administration’s new policy was motivated by “an arrogant assumption that the government is better suited to direct women’s health care than their providers.”

Title X is a 1970 law designed to improve access to family planning services, especially for low-income women and those in rural areas, but abortion opponents and religious conservatives say it has long been used to indirectly subsidize abortion providers.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure, but federal laws prohibit the use of Title X or other taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman.

Clinics that receive money under Title X provide a wide array of services, including birth control and screening for diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and cancer. The program serves 4 million patients, about 1.6 million of whom obtain services through Planned Parenthood.

In addition to banning abortion referrals by taxpayer-funded clinics, the changes would prohibit clinics that receive federal money from sharing office space with abortion providers — a rule critics said would force many to find new locations, undergo expensive remodels or shut down.

“All over the country, there are Title X providers looking at their patient schedules and wondering what they were going to do,” said Clare Coleman, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which sued. “Now we know that everyone can continue to do their care as they have been doing for the past 50 years.”

The judge made his ruling from the bench and said he would issue a written opinion early next week, Coleman said.

The Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment, citing a policy of not commenting on litigation.

While the new rules would permit clinic staff to discuss abortion with clients, they would no longer be required to do so. If patients ask for an abortion referral, staff would be required to give a list of primary care providers with no indication as to which provide abortions.

The list would have to include providers who do not offer abortions, and it could not include clinics or organizations that aren’t primary care providers, such as Planned Parenthood.

Supporters of the changes say they return Title X’s regulations back to their original legislative intent that “none of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”

“We’re extremely disappointed that a district judge made a ruling — a wrong ruling — that affects the entire nation,” said Mark Miloscia, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, which was not involved in the case. “We support family planning, but not giving it through agencies that kill the unborn.”

The legal challenges argue that the changes violate a requirement that patients receive pregnancy counseling that is not weighted for or against abortion, and that it violates the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition on regulations that impose “unreasonable barriers to the ability of individuals to obtain appropriate medical care.”

Some 98,000 patients in Washington were expected to receive care through Title X this year, Ferguson said.</s>Maine Family Planning has withdrawn its request to block what it calls the Trump administration's 'gag rule' on abortion.

In a press release, Maine Family Planning says a nationwide injunction issued Thursday by a federal judge in Washington eliminates the need for additional relief.

Earlier this week, the nonprofit argued in federal district court in Bangor that the new rule violates patient and provider rights.

The rule applies to the Title X federal grant program, which helps low income patients access family planning services. Under the new requirements, clinics would have to erect complete physical and financial separation between abortion and other services they provide. It would also prohibit providers from making referrals for abortions.</s>A second federal judge has blocked a Trump administration rule that prohibits the use of taxpayer family planning funds to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.”

Judge Stanley Bastian of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, granted a preliminary injunction Thursday, allowing Planned Parenthood to continue to receive millions of dollars in taxpayer funding under the Title X family planning grant program.

The Trump administration’s rule, set to go into effect on May 3, reinstated President Ronald Reagan’s “Protect Life Rule,” which bars the “co-location” of federally funded family planning clinics and abortion clinics.

“Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women,” said Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a statement announcing the decision.

In his announcement of the ruling, the attorney general quoted the judge’s statement: “There is no public interest in perpetuating unlawful agency action.”

Ferguson’s office boasted the attorney general “has filed 35 lawsuits against the Trump Administration and has not lost a case.”

The state of Washington brought the suit along with the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA).

On Tuesday, Judge Michael J. McShane of U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, also an Obama-era appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration, favoring Oregon, 19 other states, and the District of Columbia – all of which joined together in another lawsuit.

McShane called the Trump administration’s rule a “ham-fisted approach to public health policy, one that emphasizes a political issue over Title X’s stated goal of reducing unintended pregnancies,” reported Courthouse News Service.

The Trump administration’s rule, however, does not cut any funding from the Title X family planning program – only from providers that perform or refer for abortions.

The funds are still distributed to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which actually outnumber abortion facilities 20 to 1 and provide more comprehensive services to allow low-income women, men, and families to receive healthcare services in a location other than an abortion clinic.

Other lawsuits against the policy were heard last week in California and this week in Maine.

The new rule would block about $60 million in family planning funding to Planned Parenthood because it provides and refers for abortions.

Under the policy, Planned Parenthood and other abortion vendors who wish to continue to receive Title X family planning funds may do so if they choose either to end their abortion services from all locations that receive the Title X funding or move those abortion services offsite to an entirely different location.

Pro-life leaders celebrated the rule when it was announced in February.

“President Trump’s HHS is taking a major step toward the ultimate goal of ending taxpayers’ forced partnership with the abortion industry,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in a statement. “The finalized ‘protect life rule’ draws a bright line between abortion and family planning programs — just as the federal law requires and the Supreme Court has upheld.”

March for Life President Jeanne Mancini also said in a statement that “abortion is neither healthcare nor family planning – which is why the Title X program has no business funding it.”</s>A federal judge Wednesday did not say how he would rule on a challenge to Trump administration regulations that would limit what federally funded health care providers can tell patients about accessing abortion services. But during a hearing on the challenge in federal court in Bangor, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said he would decide soon.

Attorneys for Maine Family Planning, the state’s only direct recipient of the federal Title X funds, are seeking an injunction that would block the rule from taking effect as scheduled on May 3. The hearing before Walker came the morning after a federal judge in Oregon considering a separate but similar legal challenge against the rule said he would grant a preliminary injunction blocking it.

Walker on Wednesday questioned attorneys on both sides during the more than two-hour hearing.

Many of his questions focused on whether the rule that requires separate facilities for reproductive health care services and abortion services would force clinics that receive Title X funds to close, which would force patients to travel more than 100 miles to access those services.

Attorneys for Maine Family Planning said it has presented ample evidence that the rule, if implemented, would place an undue burden on its clients and deny access to health care for thousands of Maine women.

Department of Justice attorneys countered that the rule is about how federal funds are used, not about limiting access to abortion or reproductive health care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expects that other providers would step in to fill the gap or Maine Family Planning would find funding elsewhere.

Federal law prohibits federal funds from being used to perform abortions. Title X funds pay for family planning and other preventive health care services for low-income and uninsured people.

Maine Family Planning in March sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

It is one of a handful of legal actions pending in federal courts around the country seeking to keep what opponents have called a “gag rule” from going into effect, according to George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning.

The Trump administration rule would prevent doctors and nurses at facilities that receive federal funding from discussing abortion with pregnant patients or referring them to abortion providers even if they ask questions about abortion services, according to the complaint.

The plan also would require that abortion services be separated physically from other reproductive health care services — a provision referred to as the “separation” rule.

Title X recipients that violated the rule could lose their federal funds.

In Oregon on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane said he would grant an injunction in a similar legal challenge to the restrictions.

Oregon joined with 19 other states, Washington, D.C., Planned Parenthood affiliates and the American Medical Association to file the legal challenge in U.S. District Court in Oregon.

McShane also announced that he will issue a preliminary injunction to block the “separation” rule.

Three similar challenges are pending in federal courts around the country.

If Walker or other federal judges in other jurisdictions refuse to issue injunctions, the U.S. Supreme Court most likely would have to settle the issue.

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Walker in October after President Donald Trump nominated him to the federal bench in April 2018.

In December, Walker rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting launched by former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin following his loss to Democrat Jared Golden.
A federal district court in Washington State issues a preliminary injunction against enforcement of an initiative by the Donald Trump administration ("gag order") that would have restricted doctor-patient communications about abortion in family planning clinics that receive U.S. taxpayer funding.