President Donald Trump Can Defund Planned Parenthood Even More, Here’s How

In 1970, Congress enacted Title X of the Public Health Service Act that provides federal tax dollars for family planning services. The Act states that grants and contracts under Title X must “be in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary (of Health and Human Services) may promulgate.”
Section 1008 of the Act, passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress, ensures that no taxpayer dollars be “used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”  It was not until 1988 that the Reagan administration issued “co-location” guidelines. These guidelines were intended to further protect taxpayers from being complicit with the destruction of abortion. They were challenged in court and the Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that the regulations are permissible. However, a few years later President Bill Clinton, a supporter of abortion, removed those same protections.
Earlier this month more than 150 U.S Representatives and 41 Senators sent letters to President Trump’s HHS Secretary Alex Azar to restore the Reagan era rule. The elected officials asked that the new regulations remove the forced abortion referral for Title X grantees but also that they call for a “physical separation of abortion activities from Title X service sites and separate personnel.” The reason for the physical separation is to ensure complete financial separation between American tax dollars and abortion related activities. After all, a majority of American taxpayers oppose taxpayer funding for abortion.
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