ICYMI: Sen. Jacky Rosen Requests Congressional Review of President Trump’s Dangerous and Unethical Title X “Gag Rule”

Reno, NV — This week, Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen formally requested ranking members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) to review potential harmful impacts of the Title X “gag rule” that was recently announced by the Trump administration. The gag rule threatens the Title X federal family planning program, which provides essential health care for millions. 
 
Sen. Rosen joined Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in sending the written request to the HELP committee chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (D-TN) and ranking member Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA,) challenging the policy. The gag rule, which would forbid Title X health care providers from informing patients about access to safe, legal abortion services, is a violation of medical ethics and unprecedented in American health care. If the Title X gag rule goes into effect as planned, it could result in making ALL Title X services, including birth control, unavailable to millions of Americans.  
 
Sen. Rosen’s stand against the Trump administration’s dangerous Title X gag rule is the third high-profile rebuke of the policy to come from Nevada, following Gov. Steve Sisolak’s public admonishment and Attorney General Aaron Ford’s joint lawsuit with 20 other states challenging the Title X gag rule.   

Statement from Lindsey Harmon, Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada:    

“Everyone deserves access to quality, affordable reproductive health care regardless of who they are, or where they live. This rule is a direct attack on anyone who can’t afford the rising costs of health care. The Trump-Pence administration is dismantling the nation’s family planning program, which is meant to ensure that people with low incomes can still access birth control, STI testing, cancer screenings, and other essential reproductive health care.   

We thank Senator Rosen for her defense of Nevadans’ health care and demanding that we take a closer look at how the Title X gag rule will harm thousands in our state and millions nationwide.” 

About the Title X Gag Rule:  

• This rule is opposed by the general public, the medical community, lawmakers, and public health experts. When the rule was announced, nearly 500,000 Americans submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services voicing their opposition.   

• Major medical associations like the American Medical Association, National Medical Association, National Hispanic Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, and others stand against this rule. In addition, more than 200 members of Congress and 100 public health organizations have come out in opposition to a gag policy.   

• There is no replacement for Planned Parenthood, as researchers, medical experts and other providers agree. This rule will jeopardize access to free or low-cost basic needs — like birth control, and STI or cancer screenings — for many underserved communities, including rural communities and many communities of color.    

• Many of the lists of “replacement” providers brandished by proponents of policies to block care at Planned Parenthood don’t even provide reproductive health care. In Louisiana, the state list of alternative providers included dentists and nursing homes. In Florida, it included school nurses. In Ohio, it included food banks.    

  ###