Courts Sink New Title X Regulations

Abstract

The final version of the new regulations governing how Title X funds can be distributed to family planning projects issued on February 2 1988 contain several controversial elements including a provision prohibiting Title X family planning providers from counseling patients about abortion or referring them for any abortion-related services and another requiring recipients to have physically separate facilities from those of any abortion provider. Also important were provisions forbidding Title X recipients from using non-Title X funds to lobby for abortion rights develop materials advocating abortion or take legal action seeking to permit the use of abortion as a family planning method. A significant addition to the revised regulations involved the definition of who would be affected. The DHHS stipulated that even nonfederal funds be subject to the regulations by requiring that all funds allocated to the Title X program or project be spent in compliance with section 1008 and that the program be separate and distinct from prohibited abortion activities. District Court Judge Zita L. Weinscheink in response to a Colorado legal action by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued a preliminary injunction against the regulations on February 15 citing their unduly burdensome interference with a womans freedom to decide whether o terminate a pregnancy. New York District Court Judge Lewis L. Stanton granted an injunction to the American Civil Liberties Union a few days later. On March 3 Massachusetts District Judge Walter Jay Skinner permanently enjoined enforcement of the regulations.