Planned Parenthood Calls Out Trump Administration’s Title X Change: “[It's] A Tool Of Oppression”

By Nicole Rojas


Finding excellent health care services In America can be a daunting task, made even more complicated once resources are limited. For the four million Residents of the
U.S. Using Title X, a federal program that provides access to family member planning and preventive health services, things are about to get more complicated.


On February 22, the Trump administration suggested a new rule to Title X, which would cut funding for birth control, STD prevention, and cancer screenings to any corporation that provides or refers patients to abortions, NPR announced. The administration claims the updated rule will “ensure a holistic and health-centered approach, safeguarding the short- and long-term family member planning needs” of more patients under the Title X program.


Although Dr. Leana Wen, the president of Offered Parenthood, is calling their bluff.


“What the Trump administration is doing is dismantling Title X and taking away health care from millions of people,” she tells MTV News. “Specifically, the administration is putting a gag on doctors, saying that patients coming into Title X clinics right now cannot get a referral for abortion care, even if they ask for it.” Such a rule would also drastically affect the millions of low-income Residents of the United States who depend on Title X for their reproductive healthcare across the board. Although, abortion care specifically has been a longtime point of contention for several politicians, although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of its legality in 1973 with their decision on Roe V. Wade.


According to the Guttmacher Institute, 23.7 percent of ladies In the
U.S. Will have an abortion by the age of 45, though the variety of abortions in the U.S. Have dropped significantly — down 25 percent between 2008 and 2014. That reduce hasn’t stopped lawmakers in 13 states from introducing restrictive bans on abortion immediately after 6 weeks, which is often the earliest that a person can even realize they’re pregnant; according to experts, these types of laws are being introduced in a task to overturn Roe.


As an alternative opposed to referring patients for abortions, Title X providers would only be allowed to offer patients who ask for a referral with top list of comprehensive primary health care providers, according to the Los Angeles Times. The rule mandates that some of the facilities listed, “but not the majority,” can offer abortions. Title X providers could be prohibited from saying which facilities issue abortions.


In its annual report, Proposed Parenthood mentioned abortions represented just 4 percent of the services it supplied, however the rule change would block funding entirely. The Trump administration is also pushing Title X providers to prove they are not using federal cash on abortions — however that provision is already banned by Congress. And given that the bulk of Recommended Parenthood’s services have nothing to do with abortion, Dr. Wen sees the gag as indicative of a larger, identically damaging issue: that the new law would force doctors into breaking another healthcare law.


She notes that the rules are essentially censoring doctors and forcing them to withhold vital statistics from patients. “Not being able to discuss and refer our patients for abortion care is forcing doctors to censor what we can and cannot mention to our patients,” she mentioned. “It violates the law as passed by Congress, which specifically states that doctors must allocate the complete span of options to our patients.”


Unless a judge rules against the Trump administration’s new rule, it will go into effect in May. Suggested Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the new rule on March 5, joining similar claims made by the American Medical Association, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union plus a coalition of nearly two dozen states. And she’s hopeful that young people will join in on the fight, not least of all because 63 percent of patients who rely on health centers that use Title X funding are under the age of 30.


To that effect, the company also launched the Protect X campaign, which aims to educate Residents of the
U.S. Around the nation and to mobilize them against the administration’s efforts to diminish access to health care services. Given these recommended changes to Title X would largely affect uninsured patients with limited resources, like young people who need care without using their parents’ insurance, this action is especially urgent.


The Trump administration also hopes to use the new rule to tackle family member communication. One new requirement in the gag rule would force personnel at Title X health centers to document specific actions taken to stimulate minors to involve their family member in their health care decisions.


“Planned Parenthood health centers already encourage family member involvement, although there really are cases like abuse, LGBTQ discrimination, or simply a desire for pregnancy where young people may simply pick not to,” Dr. Wen mentioned. “Imposing these extra requirements may interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and deter young people from seeking healthcare altogether.”


Lower-income Residents of the United States, particularly people of color and Latinx people, will also be affected by the new rule. More than 1/3 of the patients who rely on Title X are Hispanic or Latinx and 13 percent have limited proficiency in English language, meaning the new rule would add however another layer of discrimination, Dr. Wen says.


“Many of those people already face the greatest barriers to care and the changes to the Title X program will only worsen existing health care disparities. This is an attack, again, by the Trump administration on those who are the most vulnerable,” she says. “It’s people of color. It’s families with low revenue who are struggling to create ends meet. It’s immigrants. It’s LGBTQ people. And this is one more attack to take away health care from people who already face the greatest barriers to care.”


“Let me mention it this way,” Dr. Wen adds. “As a doctor, I know that keeping people unhealthy is a tool of oppression and stigmatizing women’s health care is a tool of misogyny. What these anti-women’s health politicians are doing … it’s not about health care. It’s about politics, and it’s about power and control over women’s bodies.”


Additional reporting by Ella Cerón