WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to announce on Friday a new policy barring Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations from providing or mentioning abortions at any facility that receives federal family planning funds, according to two White House officials and others familiar with the matter.
The change, a top priority of social conservatives, is the latest move by President Trump to impose curbs on reproductive rights, in this case by walling off government money from any facility that offers women the option of terminating a pregnancy.
Federal family planning laws already bar direct funding of organizations that use abortion as a family planning method. But conservative activists and Republican lawmakers have been pressing Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, to tighten the rules further so that abortions could not occur in the same place, or be performed by the same staff, where federally funded reproductive health services were provided.
The policy would be a return to one instituted in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan that required a “physical separation’’ and “separate personnel’’ for abortion services from other family planning activities. It would also include a “domestic gag rule,’’ barring facilities that receive family planning funds from providing any information to patients about an abortion or where to receive one.
The policy has been derided as a ‘‘gag rule’’ by abortion rights supporters and medical groups, and it is likely to trigger lawsuits that could keep it from taking effect. However, it’s guaranteed to galvanize activists on both sides of the abortion debate ahead of the congressional midterm elections.
The Reagan-era rule never went into effect as written, although the Supreme Court ruled that it was an appropriate use of executive power. The policy was rescinded under President Bill Clinton, and a new rule went into effect that required ‘‘nondirective’’ counseling to include a range of options for women.
Abortion is a legal medical procedure. Doctors’ groups and abortion rights supporters say a ban on counseling women trespasses on the doctor-patient relationship. They point out that federal family planning funds cannot be currently used to pay for abortion procedures.
Abortion opponents say a taxpayer-funded family planning program should have no connection whatsoever to abortion.
Two White House officials and two other people briefed on the plans said Thursday that the Trump administration will announce Friday that it is adopting the policy, a move that they planned to outline for social conservative and religious activists during an early-morning telephone briefing.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
