The list could include available prenatal care providers who perform abortions, but could not include any provider whose principal business is the provision of abortions. Both the original bill and the Chafee substitute overturn regulations promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services in 1988 prohibiting Title X program participants from providing any information about abortion. The 1988 regulations were upheld by the Supreme Court's decision in Rust v. Sullivan, May 23, 1991. In the process, the abortion controversy would be removed from Title X, which would result in increased funding for this meritorious program. The purpose of Title X is to provide people with information and contraceptives in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Service is provided primarily to the poor.
Numerous studies indicate that a large number of poor people do not receive any of these services, yet funding for this program is declining. In the last ten years, funding has fallen by 50 percent. The reason for the decline is that there has been a concerted effort, which the bill before us is a continuation of, to change the purpose of the program to include abortion counseling and referral for those women who arrive at Title X clinics already pregnant. The Durenberger amendment would forge a compromise. When pregnant women arrive at these clinics, they immediately will be referred to experts in pregnancy.