On Wednesday, a federal appeals court overturned a major pro-life legal victory by once again blocking a Trump administration that could lead to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from losing much of their federal funding.
At issue is a new rule by the Department of Health and Human Services that prohibits Title X family-planning funds from being used to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” It also requires Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to financially and physically separate their abortion facilities from their non-abortion services. Critics, like Planned Parenthood, call it the “gag rule.”
Planned Parenthood and its allies filed suit against the department. They were joined by the attorneys general of 20-plus states.
Although a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had allowed the rule to go into effect, a larger or “en banc” panel of the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday blocked the rule and said it would hear the case. The decision will be made by 11 judges, according to Courthouse News.
A two-paragraph order from the court said a “majority of non-recused active judges” had ordered that the case be heard by the larger panel. The earlier decision by the three judges “shall not be cited as precedent by or to any court of the Ninth Circuit,” the order…
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