U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican from Kansas, is leading a congressional letter urging the Trump administration to restore the Protect Life Rule, a Trump policy from his first administration that aimed to bar federal Title X family planning funds from supporting abortion-related activities.
Estes and 158 other lawmakers sent the May 28 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Signers included Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
The lawmakers called for reissuing the rule, which required physical and financial separation between Title X programs and barred Title X providers from referring patients for abortion as a method of family planning. According to the letter, the Biden administration rescinded the rule, allowing Title X-funded services to operate in the same facilities as abortion providers and requiring participating clinics to offer abortion referral in certain circumstances.
“We ask you to correct the misguided actions of the previous administration and reimplement the Protect Life Rule to ensure taxpayer dollars are not used to subsidize the abortion industry,” the co-signers stated in the letter.
Lawmakers also argued the Protect Life rule strengthened protections for women and children vulnerable to abuse, rape, incest, and trafficking by increasing oversight of Title X grantees’ compliance with state abuse reporting laws.
Estes said in a press release that the Biden administration has forced “a deeply flawed mandate” on the Title X program for “too long.”
“By reissuing the Protect Life Rule,” Estes said, “the Trump Administration will once again draw a bright, undeniable line of physical and financial separation between actual family planning services and elective abortion activities.”
CatholicVote supported the letter, along with several pro-life organizations, including National Right to Life, March for Life Action, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.