PLANNED PARENTHOOD OFF FEDERAL TITLE X FUNDING AFTER TRUMP RULE CHANGE
BY LUIS MIGUEL
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The pro-life movement in America has scored a major win over one of its most well-known opponents.On Monday, abortion provider Planned Parenthood dropped its Title X federal funding in response to a newly enforced rule by the Trump administration that prohibits family-planning clinics from talking to patients about abortion or referring them to abortion centers.The announcement by Planned Parenthood came after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week denied the organization’s request to reverse its order allowing the Health and Human Services (HHS) restriction to go into effect.“Due to an unethical and dangerous gag rule, the Trump administration has forced Planned Parenthood grantees out of Title X,” said Planned Parenthood CEO and acting president Alexis McGill Johnson.She called the rule an “attack on reproductive health care” and said Planned Parenthood will continue to fight it in court.“We will not be bullied into withholding abortion information from our patients,” Johnson added.Critics of the rule say communities of color would be most affected. Proponents see that in a positive light, noting that over 19 million black babies have been aborted since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.In a statement, HHS spokesperson Mia Palmieri responded that Planned Parenthood has only itself to blame for its loss of federal funds: “Every grantee had the choice to accept the grant and comply with the program's regulations or not accept the grant if they did not want to comply. Some grantees are now blaming the government for their own actions — having chosen to accept the grant while failing to comply with the regulations that accompany it — and they are abandoning their obligations to serve their patients under the program.”Multiple federal judges had blocked the rule prior to the Ninth Circuit Court’s reviews of it in June and July.Title X, enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act, is a federal grant program that aims to provide pregnancy prevention services to the low-income and uninsured.Now that the Trump administration has accomplished one of the president’s (and Republicans’) longest-running promises — to get Planned Parenthood off federal funding — the next question is: Do we really need a program such as Title X subsidizing Americans’ birth control at all?
