Trump Will Rescind Obama-Era Guidance on Medicaid Funding of Abortion Providers

By Nancy Flory Published on January 19, 2018

The White House just announced that it will pull back Obama’s guidance about defunding abortion clinics.

The former president’s 2016 guidance warned that ending Medicaid funding to abortion providers could be against the law.

HHS said under Obama that states could only ban providers from the Medicaid program for two reasons. The first being if the providers were unable to perform covered services. Otherwise, if providers could not bill for those services, they could be banned.

In a letter sent to state Medicaid directors Friday, the Trump administration said that the Obama guidance “favor[ed] abortion.”

Charmaine Yoest is the assistant HHS secretary for public affairs. She held a press call with reporters on Friday. These standards will help “protect Medicaid programs and their beneficiaries,” she said. Going back to the pre-2016 standards allows states to decide reasonable standards for themselves.

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“This is part of the Trump administration’s effort to roll back regulations,” she said. Obama put them out “to radically favor abortion,” she added.

This isn’t the first time that the Trump administration has rescinded an Obama-era guidance on abortion. In April, Trump rolled back a rule that banned states from withholding federal money from abortion providers.

Susan B. Anthony List’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said the move was an “important step.” This will help get “American taxpayers out of funding the abortion industry,” she said. “Especially Planned Parenthood.” Now she wants Congress to “finish what this pro-life administration has started,” and defund the abortion giant.

The Trump administration issued the announcement on the same day as the March for Life, when pro-lifers meet in Washington, D.C., to march against abortion.

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