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The rule had been announced last Monday, when officials said it
would take immediate effect. The reversal was announced on Saturday
evening by U.S. Health and Human Services Department officials, who
informed clinics that they would now have two months to comply
before facing penalties, the Post reported.
Trump, who says he opposes abortions in most cases, has joined many
of his fellow Republicans in seeking to curtail access to legal
abortions. Many doctors and rights groups are fighting these efforts
as harmful to women's health and in breach of a constitutional right
to abortion.
A federal appeals court cleared the way for the move earlier this
year, ruling that the administration could cut off Title X subsidies
of reproductive healthcare and family planning costs for low-income
women at clinics that refer patients to abortion providers.
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The rule was intended to help Trump fulfill his 2016 campaign pledge
to end federal support for Planned Parenthood, a non-profit group
that runs about 600 healthcare clinics around the country and
receives an estimated one-fifth of all Title X funds.
Planned Parenthood has condemned the rule, saying it silences
doctors and nurses and would harm their patients' health.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, said this week that his
state would defy the rule by refusing all Title X funding from the
federal government, replacing those funds with state money.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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