ABORTION/COURTS/FEDERAL FUNDING/PLANNED PARENTHOOD/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A federal judge in Washington state on Thursday [4-25-19] blocked a Trump administration rule that would have overhauled the Title X federal family planning program and cut funding to health providers that offer abortions or abortion referrals. U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian, an Obama appointee, issued a nationwide injunction staying the changes from taking effect while several other legal challenges proceed. Bastian heard several hours of arguments Thursday from Washington state and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association challenging the administration’s Title X funding rule and arguments from the Justice Department defending the changes. The rule was set to take effect May 3 and would have stripped Title X funding from providers that refer patients to an abortion provider even if they ask for such a referral — a provision critics have labeled a ‘gag rule.’ It would have the effect of excluding Planned Parenthood, which currently serves about 40 percent of all Title X patients nationwide, while funding conservative groups opposed to contraception and abortion that promote abstinence and natural family planning methods.”
–Alice Mirands Ollstein, “Judge freezes Trump abortion rule,” Politico, April 25, 2019 5:48 pm