NJ joins lawsuit to block federal rule restricting access to health care, family planning

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced on Wednesday that New Jersey is a participant in the multi-state lawsuit seeking to block a new federal regulation that would limit access to health care and family planning services for millions of low-income individuals and families by imposing a multitude of new restrictions on the Title X program.
Title X provides more than $286 million in federal funding annually to support an array of vital health care services in New Jersey and across the nation, including reproductive health services and counseling to four million women.
In a statement the AGs office explained that in New Jersey, Title X-funded health care providers are an essential part of the health care landscape, having served nearly 100,000 patients and prevented more than 19,000 unplanned pregnancies in 2017.
“The Trump Administration’s attempt to limit access to critical health care and family planning resources is reckless and unacceptable,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “Low-income New Jerseyans rely on Title X for critical primary and preventive health care needs and providing access to these services is essential in building a stronger and fairer New Jersey. I fully support Attorney General Grewal and his efforts to challenge this rule in court.”
“New Jersey is proud to stand with its Title X healthcare providers, the patients they serve, and a broad coalition of other states in challenging a rule that puts the health of women and low-income individuals at risk to advance an ideological agenda,” said Grewal. “We will fight to protect our residents’ access to high-quality reproductive health care and family planning services.”
“The Trump Administration’s new Title X rules are short-sighted, unethical, and rooted in political ideology rather than in evidence-based standards of care,” said New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal.
“Doctors, nurses, and other providers should be able to speak honestly and openly with their patients about all healthcare options, and these new rules violate that sacred provider-patient relationship in women’s health,” Dr. Elnahal said.
Filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon, the multi-state lawsuit, in addition to New Jersey is joined by 18 other states and the District of Columbia. It contends that the new regulation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services imposes “burdensome and unnecessary restrictions” that would reduce access to care, interfere with the patient-provider relationship and undermine the intent of Congress in enacting Title X nearly 50 years ago. Among other harms, the complaint alleges, the new rule unlawfully “gags” certain Title X-funded health care providers by prohibiting them from providing pregnant patients with “nondirective counseling” on all legal options relating to their pregnancies.
The net result of the rule, the states contend, is that many providers will be “unwilling to participate in a program that compromises their medical and ethical standards.” That in turn will erode the quality of care available under Title X, and “dramatically” reduce the number of high-quality providers working at facilities funded by the program.
In a New-Jersey-specific component of the complaint, it is noted that the nonprofit New Jersey Family Planning League is currently the sole statewide grantee for federal Title X family planning services. For more than 44 years, the complaint explains, the NJFPL has been managing a system of sub-recipient agencies that provide quality family planning services to the residents of New Jersey.
According to the complaint, the NJFPL’s Title X grant for the 2017-18 fiscal year approximately $8.8 million helped support “one of the largest single existing systems for the provision of preventive health care” in New Jersey, and served a patient base comprised mostly of patients living well below the federal poverty level.
NJFPL currently provides Title X funding to 10 sub-recipient agencies in New Jersey.

CREDIT: Jessica Perry