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  • Title: Title X program faces major upheaval as High Court okays ban on abortion speech.
    Journal: Wash Memo Alan Guttmacher Inst; 1991 May 29; (9):1-4. PubMed ID: 12343265.
    Abstract:
    The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Title X "gag rule" threatens to cause massive disruption in the delivery national family planning services, and Congressional leaders have vowed to overturn the measure. Implemented in 1988 during the Reagan administration, the gag rule bars doctors and counselors in clinics receiving federal funds from providing information on abortion. On May 23, the Supreme Court, in 5-4 decision, upheld the regulation on both statutory and constitutional grounds. The court's majority ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services can interpret the law broadly, as long as it does not violate the intent of Congress; it also stated that the gag rule does not pose a restriction on free speech. The gag rule will go into effect in 60 days unless Congress overturns it. And should the measure go into effect, family planning clinics receiving federal dollars face the option of either adhering to the ban or relying strictly on private funds to offer abortion-related services. Some have predicted that, because of ethical concerns, many current Title X recipients will refuse to comply with the new regulation, causing a serious disruption in the delivery of family planning services. Critics of the court's decision have said that the ruling will obstruct the doctor-patient relationship, that it will punish primarily poor women and adolescents, and that it will indeed restrict free speech. Congressional leaders have said that they will move quickly to overturn the gag rule, and lawmakers in both houses have already introduced bills seeking to do just that.
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