U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian, an Obama appointee, issued an injunction staying the changes from taking effect while several other legal challenges proceed. His temporary block applies ** nationwide.
Bastian heard several hours of arguments Thursday from Washington state and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association challenging the administration's Title X funding rule.
The ruling comes just two ** days after another federal judge in Oregon announced his intent to put the new rules on hold, siding with a coalition of Democratic attorneys general, Planned Parenthood and the American Medical Association. Judge Michael McShane called the administration's policies a "ham-fisted" approach that would "reduce health outcomes" but didn't say whether his injunction would be nationwide or more limited.
