Further chipping away at his predecessor's legacy, President Donald Trump signed legislation Thursday that lets states deny federal family planning money to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
Trump's action erases a rule, finalized shortly before President Barack Obama left office in January, that said states could not block the money. It's the latest Obama regulation that Trump has overturned.
Federal law prohibits government money for abortion, except in cases of rape or incest, or to save a woman's life.
The rule tossed out by Trump required state and local governments to distribute federal dollars for family planning services, including contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening, to qualified health providers, irrespective of whether the providers also performed abortions.
Republicans and abortion opponents said the new law will let states divert money now going to groups that perform abortions to organizations that do not.
Democrats and abortion rights advocates said it represented an attack on women.
Cox Media Group
