ATLANTA — The Trump Administration is jumping into the fight against abortions.
A new mandate would stop taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women to have the procedure done.The administration said it will start enforcing the new regulation right away.
It's a move cheered by supporters, but criticized by those working for a woman's right to choose.
The U.S Health and Human Services Department just formally notified clinics of the change.
The agency is also requiring taxpayer-funded clinics to keep their finances separate from facilities that offer abortions, and starting next year, they will no longer be able to be housed under the same roof.
The changes are seen as a huge blow for Planned Parenthood, a group that provides taxpayer-funded family planning and basic health care to low-income women. Abortions must be paid for separately.
The organization, with 600 centers across the U.S., is a big part of the federally funded family planning program, known as Title X, but it has threatened to quit over the issue.
Title X serves about 4 million women a year through independent clinics, many of them operated by Planned Parenthood affiliates, which amounts to about 40 percent of the clinics.
Abortion is a legal medical procedure, but federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer funds to cover the costs, excepts in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
This latest change from the Trump Administration is just the latest in its efforts to shape reproductive health issues.
Other regulations, currently in courts, would allow employers to opt out of providing free birth control to women workers because of religious or moral reasons. Another would give health care professionals more leeway in deciding not to preform procedures, also because of their religion or morals.
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