U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will pause its enforcement of a new rule barring federally funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, the Washington Post reported late on Saturday. The rule had been announced last Monday, when officials said it would take immediate effect. Trump, who says he opposes abortions in most cases, has joined many of his fellow Republicans in seeking to curtail access to legal abortions. 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.

Source: National Post July 21, 2019 15:11 UTC