Only days after the famously left-leaning 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted several nationwide injunctions against President Trump’s “pro-life rule” forbidding federal tax subsidies to abortion providers, another appeals court panel issued a similar ruling.
The 9th Circuit three-judge panel granted the Trump administration’s request to lift state and nationwide blocks on the rule, which was targeted by lawsuits as soon as it was finalized this year.
The judges said the administration likely will win its case defending the rule, which directs Title X government funding to family health centers that don’t do abortion.
Now, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed.
Two of three judges on the panel approved lifting an injunction that applied only to the state of Maryland. It was the last jurisdiction where the rule did not yet apply.
The Trump rule, finalized earlier this year, advances the president’s promise to stop funding abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood, who will no longer receive Title X funding if they choose not to comply.
To comply with the rule, abortion providers would need to set up separate facilities that don’t provide abortion.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said yet another federal court “has delivered victory for President Trump and the majority of Americans who do not want to fund the abortion industry with their tax dollars.”
“A strong majority of Americans have consistently voiced their opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion – it is even unpopular among Democrats and self-described pro-choice Americans,” she said.
“Without reducing Title X funding by a dime, the Protect Life Rule simply draws a bright line between abortion and family planning, stopping abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood from treating Title X as their private slush fund. Similar regulations were upheld by the Supreme Court nearly three decades ago. After this latest vindication, we are even more confident the Trump administration will prevail.”
Mayor De Blasio’s ‘tantrum’
WND reported this week New York City officials will refuse $1.3 million in federal funding for public hospitals because its officials want staff members to promote abortion.
“This tantrum by [New York City Mayor Bill] de Blasio and other New York City hospital bureaucrats to forgo federal funds is driven by their absence of concern for human lives,” said Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, which regularly defends the unborn in court.
“There are people that truly need medical attention in those hospitals. However, it is ironic that doctors and nurses in the public hospital system ‘took an oath to protect and serve patients’ but city and state officials will do whatever necessary to murder unborn children and harm women. This is just another example that New York wants to become the world sanctuary for abortions,” he said.
The Trump rule stops an estimated $60 million in tax money from flowing to abortion industry giant Planned Parenthood.
De Blasio claims it’s a “gag rule.”
His state most recently adopted a Reproductive Health Act that, according to Liberty Counsel, “authorizes the murder of unborn babies up to the point of birth for any reason and revokes medical care for babies who are born alive after a failed abortion.”
“This new law also seeks to deny any recognition or protection for human beings before birth under any circumstances.”
The ruling comes even as pro-abortion House Democrats are promoting a bill to protect tax funding for their abortion industry supporters.
A Marist poll in January found that, by double-digits, a majority of Americans oppose any taxpayer funding of abortion.
