Attorney General Becerra Files for Preliminary Injunction to Halt Trump-Pence Administration’s Title X Gag Rule

California has the largest Title X program in the country, serving more than one million of the four million Title X patients nationwide

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking to block the Trump-Pence Administration’s Title X Family Planning Rule, which restricts access to critical preventive healthcare such as birth control, prohibits doctors from providing accurate information for patients, and bans referrals for abortion. Attorney General Becerra argues that the rule will interfere with the practice of medicine and result in many providers leaving the Title X program or closing their doors altogether. Today’s action aims to protect patients, providers and family planning clinics while litigation continues.

“A woman’s healthcare decisions are between her and her doctor – period,” said Attorney General Becerra. “This reckless and illegal rule is a dangerous political ploy to sabotage women’s reproductive healthcare. California will not stand for this – we will continue to do what’s necessary to fight for women’s rights and access to care.”

The Title X program funds healthcare providers throughout the State to support preventive care, including critical reproductive benefits and services including birth control. On May 22, 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a dangerous proposed rule that would place several harmful restrictions on the Title X program. Attorney General Becerra announced his opposition shortly after the proposed rule became public and has taken several steps to fight this rule, including:

• On July 18, 2018, Attorney General Becerra requested that the Office of Management and Budget reopen its review of the rule given the insufficient and controversial reasoning offered by the Administration for its proposed changes. 
• On July 30, 2018, he led a coalition of 13 attorneys general in filing a comment letter opposing the Trump-Pence Administration’s proposal.
• Attorney General Becerra also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on August 28, 2018, seeking documentation about the formulation of the proposal.
• On March 4, 2019, Attorney General Becerra filed a lawsuit challenging the final rule, claiming the proposed restrictions to Title X disregard the rule of law and harm California’s healthcare providers and patients who rely on Title X for healthcare services.

Today’s motion for preliminary injunction argues that the rule undermines clinically established standards of care, interferes with the patient-provider relationship, and contradicts core tenets of the Title X program. 

A copy of the motion for a preliminary injunction can be found here.