Legal scholar and public health expert Sara Rosenbaum of the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health shares insights into the Title X federal family planning program rule proposed on May 22 by the Trump administration in an online publication in the Milbank Quarterly.
“The proposed rule demands a good read,” says Rosenbaum, the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy. The Assault on Family Planning—Redux features her observations, beginning with a comparison to the Reagan-era regulations known as the “gag rule.” The proposed new rule is “virtually identical” to that decades old rule, she says. The commentary discusses the Rust v Sullivan case decided in 1991 by a deeply split U.S. Supreme Court, which concluded in a 5-4 ruling that endorsed the gag rule’s previous incarnation. Rosenbaum also explains why the previous gag rule was never implemented.
Rosenbaum predicts that the new rule will injure “millions of low-income women, their families, and residents of medically underserved urban and rural communities that disproportionately rely on the government to help create access to the most effective health care.”
Access the online publication here