--- description: Read Elizabeth Warren's views on Trump's proposed domestic gag rule, which would prevent some doctors from discussing abortions with women. title: Sen. Warren: Trump’s Proposed New Rule Is Another Attempt to Control Women’s Bodies image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc861958a620af34c/6989319686f68ea1f36e94a7/elizabeth-warren-on-trumps-domestic-gag-rule.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Sen. Warren: Trump’s New Proposal Is Another Attempt by the Government to Control Women’s Bodies by [Sen. Elizabeth Warren](/author/sen-elizabeth-warren/) ## Sen. Elizabeth Warren Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Elizabeth Warren is a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. May 30, 2018 6:01 PM CUT  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., makes the rounds for television news interviews. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., makes the rounds for television news interviews.Bill Clark—CQ-Roll Call,Inc. by [Sen. Elizabeth Warren](/author/sen-elizabeth-warren/) ## Sen. Elizabeth Warren Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Elizabeth Warren is a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. May 30, 2018 6:01 PM CUT The Trump Administration is trying to turn back the clock on [women’s healthcare and reproductive rights](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/DyWfC5yMyKhl5AJYuk0bB2?domain=time.com "undefined"). Not too long ago, [women could be charged more for health insurance than men](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Vj0EC68M8KFWjXNlcJcbrc?domain=npr.org "undefined"), just because they were women. Big insurance companies could [deny women maternity coverage](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/DMnmC73M3VIR4LgjF9BBNN?domain=vox.com "undefined") if they decided that prenatal care cut into their profits. There were no federal requirements that companies allow a woman to take leave from her job [to care for a baby](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/u7pNC82g2KskD9G8hpGxTx?domain=nationalpartnership.org "undefined"), so when a woman got pregnant, she risked losing her job to care for her newborn. And if a woman wanted to avoid pregnancy, insurance companies could decide that they didn’t want to [cover the cost of birth control](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/7yM-C9rjrYFOL80Vh6vQYs?domain=americanprogress.org "undefined"), leaving her to pay for contraception out of pocket. All that has changed — but President Trump and his right-wing buddies are champing at the bit to go back to a world where politicians meddled in a [woman’s personal health decisions](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/9d72C0RMRDsyqjx0TKzKqn?domain=time.com "undefined"). Last week, the president proposed reviving a Reagan-era rule that [targets the Title X family planning program](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/jyK1CgJyJMFBO835t0LW1j?domain=theguardian.com "undefined"). The rule is a multi-pronged attack on women. First, it threatens Title X patients’ access to medically accurate information by restricting what providers can tell patients about abortion services — even when patients directly ask for that information. Second, it loosens Title X’s quality standards, making it easier for unqualified providers — like [deceptive crisis pregnancy centers](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/R18JCjRBR6sOKgr1hy6jj5?domain=npr.org "undefined") — to take part in the program. And third, it [deliberately targets Planned Parenthood](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/R5A%5FCkRgRXsw8gE3h1720w?domain=vox.com "undefined"), one of the [largest provider](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/oKFoClY0YEHM0LrqcMHrPR?domain=vox.com "undefined")[s](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/oKFoClY0YEHM0LrqcMHrPR?domain=vox.com "undefined")[ of Title X services](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/oKFoClY0YEHM0LrqcMHrPR?domain=vox.com "undefined"). Title X doesn’t fund abortions and never has. But the rule would require [Title X providers](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/IaLCCmZkZNsMBvxLc81hN7?domain=hhs.gov "undefined") that perform abortions to do so in “physically separate facilities”— [raising providers’ costs](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/asCHCn5l56iWAnEpcBKoY7?domain=nytimes.com "undefined") in an effort to force them out of the program. Let’s be clear: the gag rule the president has proposed is not about improving women’s health care. Title X health clinics provide birth control, cancer screenings and HIV tests to over [four million Americans](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/hJ18Co2m2XswjknphYp%5FN9?domain=hhs.gov "undefined"). In 2016 alone, [Title X health centers provided](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/kamzCpYnYLHw152EhLVMHO?domain=warren.senate.gov "undefined") 720,000 medical exams for women, nearly one million breast exams and over one million HIV tests. The president’s new rule would put much of this [life-saving care at risk](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/qcBHCqxoxLs2K9Q6sJ8DQu?domain=hhs.gov "undefined"). The impact of the rule will fall hardest on women who are already struggling. The overwhelming majority of Title X patients have [family incomes below the federal poverty level](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/ScYBCrkpkVTmPxq3IJ37WR?domain=newsweek.com "undefined") and many don’t have health insurance. We’ve never had an abortion gag rule here in America, but we’ve seen Republican administrations, including the Trump Administration, [force the gag rule abroad](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/cs3ICv2w2Lslpv90u1ER-S?domain=time.com "undefined"). The [impact has been devastating](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/QGI7Cwpxp7FNJojZiN-KGt?domain=hrw.org "undefined"). Past global gag rules have stopped women around the world from getting the reproductive and maternal health care they need, like contraception, cancer screenings and pregnancy check-ups. It’s made women more likely to have unplanned pregnancies. And, in a point that should be underlined over and over, it is associated with increases, not decreases, in the number of [abortions that take place worldwide](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/027wCxkykLTXnZlqt8MT3wZ?domain=cnn.com "undefined"). Now, President Trump wants to inflict these consequences on women in America, too. The [gag rule is also a direct attack on Planned Parenthood](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/2B1zCyPzP2s4qY1miZZWMsr?domain=khn.org "undefined"). Because Planned Parenthood serves the contraceptive needs of [40% of all Title X patients](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/QwSZCzpApYFrQK1NH4X9s22?domain=npr.org "undefined"), the impact of cuts is not hard to track. When Texas cut funding for Planned Parenthood in 2011, teen birth rates and abortions [rose](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/JUHvCADrDKIRLjQJFG9o5Oe?domain=austinchronicle.com "undefined"), while [thousands of women went without reproductive health care](https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Gc3VCBBvB9cnpvGJuzjhW-2?domain=washingtonpost.com "undefined"). The new Title X rule is right-wing ideology disguised as health policy. President Trump and Vice President Pence are trying to control women and shut down Planned Parenthood and other Title X providers that offer critical reproductive healthcare. They may think they’ve won this battle, but when it comes to the fight for reproductive rights, we will not be silenced – we will march, we will protest and we will persist. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5292145/elizabeth-warren-trump-domestic-gag-rule-abortion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5292145/elizabeth-warren-trump-domestic-gag-rule-abortion/"},"headline":"Sen. 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