Clinical Chats: a Podcast for Sexual and Reproductive Health Professionals · Clinical Training Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health

Understanding Ohio v. Becerra

·21 min·1 clip

The Sixth Circuit upheld the abortion-referral requirement but said the program-integrity separation rules were not a permissible reading of Section 1008.

1. Clinical Chats: a Podcast for Sexual and Reproductive Health Professionals covers Ohio v. Becerra and its effects on Title X service sites. 2. Host materials introduce Robin Summers, J.D., Vice President and Senior Counsel at the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, where she has worked since 2005. 3. The episode asks what the Sixth Circuit ruling means for the 2021 Title X rule, Title X clinicians, and the future of the case. 4. Summers says Ohio and 11 other states originally sued over the 2021 rule, and Arizona later withdrew. 5. She explains that the case challenges the 2021 rule as a rescission and replacement of the 2019 Trump-era Title X rule. 6. She describes the 2019 rule as barring referrals for abortion care and requiring physical and financial separation from abortion services. 7. Summers says the 2019 rule “shattered the network” and led nearly 1,000 providers to leave Title X. 8. She explains the states’ arguments under the Administrative Procedure Act, including “contrary to law” and “arbitrary and capricious.” 9. She says the states specifically challenged the abortion referral requirement and the program integrity separation provisions. 10. Summers connects those provisions to Section 1008 of the Title X statute, which prohibits the use of Title X funds for abortion. 11. She walks through the procedural history, starting with the Southern District of Ohio’s December 29, 2021 decision. 12. The district court denied a preliminary injunction and upheld the 2021 rule under the Title X statute and arbitrary-and-capricious review. 13. Summers explains that the merits phase is still on hold while the preliminary injunction appeal continues. 14. She says the Sixth Circuit denied the states’ emergency injunction pending appeal because they did not show irreparable harm. 15. She notes that oral argument happened in October 2022 and the panel ruling came on November 30, 2023. 16. Summers says the Sixth Circuit upheld the referral requirement but rejected the program-integrity separation provisions as a permissible reading of Section 1008. 17. She says the panel relied on Rust v. Sullivan and Chevron deference, but described the result as a “begrudging” upholding. 18. She stresses that the court did not hold that complete physical separation between Title X and abortion services is required. 19. The conversation is explanatory and procedural, with Summers unpacking legal terms and warning against simplistic media headlines. 20. Clinicians, Title X grantees, and reproductive health staff tracking federal litigation would get the most from it, while listeners wanting a non-legal overview may skip it.

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