--- title: Donald Trump Ends Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections description: U.S. health officials said they were revoking Obama Era legal guidance discouraging states from defunding organizations Planned Parenthood. canonical: https://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-19T20:06:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:56:46.487Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections og:description: They sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services og:url: https://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f65e79cd10a1168/6988f8c1e76ad28341630ad8/rtx4dfru.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump pauses during an interview with Reuters in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections twitter:description: They sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f65e79cd10a1168/6988f8c1e76ad28341630ad8/rtx4dfru.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Yasmeen Abutaleb & Caroline Humer / Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Yasmeen Abutaleb & Caroline Humer / Reuters Jan 19, 2018 8:06 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump pauses during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., on Jan. 17, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump pauses during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., on Jan. 17, 2018.Kevin Lamarque—REUTERS by [Yasmeen Abutaleb & Caroline Humer / Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Yasmeen Abutaleb & Caroline Humer / Reuters Jan 19, 2018 8:06 PM UTC (WASHINGTON/NEW YORK) – U.S. health officials on Friday said they were revoking legal guidance issued by the Obama Administration that had sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services, such as Planned Parenthood. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials also said the department is issuing a new regulation aimed at protecting healthcare workers’ civil rights based on religious and conscience objections. The regulation protects the rights of healthcare workers from providing abortion, euthanasia, and sterilization, the officials said during a media call with reporters. On Thursday, HHS said it was creating a new division that would focus on conscience and religious objections, a move it said was necessary after years of the federal government forcing healthcare workers to provide such services. HHS will issue a letter on Friday to state Medicaid offices that will rescind the Obama Administration’s 2016 guidance, which was issued after states including Indiana had tried to defund abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. The guidance “restricted states’ ability to take certain actions against family-planning providers that offer abortion services,” HHS said in a statement. The Medicaid program, jointly funded by states and the federal government, provides healthcare services to the poor and disabled. Federal law prohibits Medicaid or any other federal funding for abortion services. Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the move encourages states to try to block access to care at Planned Parenthood. “The law is clear, it is illegal to bar women from seeking care at Planned Parenthood. Longstanding protections within Medicaid safeguard every person’s right to access care at their qualified provider of choice,” Laguens said in a statement. NEW RULE The rule will enforce existing statutes that guarantee these civil rights. Roger Severino, the director of the Office of Civil Rights at HHS, said the office had received 34 complaints since President Donald Trump took office last January. When asked by reporters if the rule would allow providers to deny care to transgender individuals based on religious objections, Severino said the rule refers to statutes that are based on providing procedures. Experts on Thursday said the move to protect workers on religious grounds raised the possibility it could provide legal cover for otherwise unlawful discrimination, and encourage a broader range of religious objections. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/"},"headline":"President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections","datePublished":"2018-01-19T20:06:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:56:46.487Z","description":"They sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services","url":"https://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f65e79cd10a1168/6988f8c1e76ad28341630ad8/rtx4dfru.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Yasmeen Abutaleb & Caroline Humer / Reuters"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f65e79cd10a1168/6988f8c1e76ad28341630ad8/rtx4dfru.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Donald Trump pauses during an interview with Reuters in Washington","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump pauses during an interview with Reuters in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—REUTERS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/","name":"President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections"}}]}] ```