WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and more than two dozen of his Senate colleagues wrote to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar to request the department promptly finalize the proposed “Protect Life Rule.”  The rule, announced by President Donald J. Trump in May, would prohibit Title X Family Planning grantees from co-locating with abortion clinics or referring clients for abortions.

The Senators wrote in part, “This much-needed reform will finally end the practice of ‘colocation,’ where abortions are conducted in the same facility as the Title X-funded family planning activities. This practice made federal funds vulnerable to misuse in support of abortion activities. It also implied that abortion was a method of family planning, in violation of Congressional intent.”

The letter was led by U.S. Senators James Lankford, R-Okla., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. In addition to Wicker, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss.

Click here for a PDF copy of the full letter.