BREAKING
Planned Parenthood Withdraws From Title X Funding
Facing a federal rule that restricts referrals for abortion, the organization decided to reject government funding for family planning for low-income women.
By Pam Belluck
Aug. 19, 2019
Planned Parenthood will withdraw from Title X, the federal family planning program, rather than comply with a new Trump administration rule that restricts what health providers can say about abortion, the organization said on Monday.
The move could affect more than 1.5 million low-income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services like birth control, pregnancy tests and screening for sexually transmitted diseases. Planned Parenthood serves about 40 percent of the four million patients under Title X. In some rural communities, Planned Parenthood is the only provider of such services.
The Trump administration’s rule says that while clinics accepting Title X funds can continue to talk to patients about abortion, they cannot refer women to an abortion provider or suggest where to obtain an abortion.
That distinction may seem like a subtle one, but Planned Parenthood and many other organizations, including the American Medical Association, say the restriction would force them to withhold medical information from patients, interferes with the doctor-patient relationship, and could deny pregnant women the range of options available to them.
“When you have an unethical rule that will limit what providers can tell our patients, it becomes really important that we not agree to be in the program,. But to be clear we’re doing that because we’re being forced out.”
“Trump’s administration is trying to force us to keep information from our patients,” said in a statement on Friday. “The gag rule is unethical, dangerous, and we will not subject our patients to it.”
The decision by Planned Parenthood is the latest step in the face-off between those who oppose restricting women’s reproductive health choices and the Trump administration, which has been steadily shifting federal health programs toward conservative preferences like promoting abstinence and allowing exemptions to insurance coverage of birth control.
The immediate effect of a Planned Parenthood withdrawal is unclear and likely to vary by state.
more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/health/planned-parenthood-title-x.html?campaign_id=60&instance_id=0&segment_id=16297&user_id=75ee940ebe2fd3e9d0a6bb93cf283302®i_id=16112385ing-news
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