WA Will Sue Trump Admin Over Rule Restricting Abortion Services

SEATTLE, WA - Washington will challenge a new federal rule around Title X funding that would restrict family planning options, including abortions.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson will sue the Trump administration on behalf of state family planning providers that could either lose millions in funding or close for good.

The federal department of Health and Human Services issued the new rule late last week. Ferguson says the new rule puts a "gag" on doctors. The rule requires doctors to refer pregnant women to prenatal care. And if a woman asks for an abortion referral, doctors would only be allowed to provide a list of doctors — but the list would not even say if the doctors perform the procedure.

"Patients should be able to make well-informed decisions based on complete, unbiased information about their health care options. Those decisions must stay between patients and their medical providers — not the federal government," Ferguson said Monday.

His lawsuit says that the new rule violates federal law, including the Affordable Care Act. The rule also violates the free speech of doctors, he said, and rights granted to women under the Roe V Wade decision.

The rule would be especially harmful for rural low-income women, Ferguson said. Without Title X funding, some clinics might have to close, forcing women to travel hundreds of miles for family planning healthcare.

Title X funds pay for low-income people to get things like sexually-transmitted disease tests and contraception. Almost 92,000 Washington residents in 2017 got care paid for with Title X funds, according to the attorney general's office.

This is the 34th time Ferguson has sued the Trump administration since 2017.