Planned Parenthood Opted Out Of Title X Rather Than Appease Trump's Demands

By Lauren Rearick


On Monday, August 19, Suggested Parenthood reported it would no longer participate in Title X, a federal program that provides affordable reproductive health care access to more than four million people living In the
U.S.. In a statement, the corporation explained it was “forced out” of Title X as a result of President Donald Trump’s newly-implemented “gag rule,” which prevents companies that receive federal funding for reproductive health offerings to refer patients to abortion-related services, should they require it or ask for it.


Implemented in 1970, Title X ensured that revenue does not play a barrier in distributing wellness exams, birth control, STD testing, and other reproductive health services to qualifying low-income residents. Abortions have never been bought or covered by Title X funding, CBS News reported, and Planned Parenthood’s annual report said abortions account for only four percent of the services it provides to patients. An estimated 4,000 reproductive health centers during the U.S. Allocate services through Title X, and nevertheless Proposed Parenthood represented only 13 percent of these centers, nearly half of these who qualified for Title X were Suggested Parenthood patients.


Back in May, the Department of Health and Human Services introduced what Suggested Parenthood deemed a gag rule; the agency also warned the ruling, which made it so that doctors could not discuss abortions with patients, would most likely affect “low-income and underserved communities,” Buzzfeed reported. On August 14, Offered Parenthood asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to grant a stay on the offered changes; immediately following the stay was denied, the company reported it would no longer participate in Title X.


While in a telephone call contained with the press on August 19, Alexis McGill Johnson, Recommended Parenthood’s acting president and CEO, said the company would remain open and available to those in need, yet the gag sort could cause a barrier in options for some people. “The Title X program is designed help to bring access to birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and more to those who otherwise can’t afford it,” McGill mentioned. “For also several people struggling to prepare ends meet — including those people in rural areas and communities of color — this gag rule may mean they delay or go without care. We believe that the Trump administration is doing this as an attack on reproductive health care and to keep providers like Proposed Parenthood from serving our patients.”


The Very Reverend Katherine Ragsdale, interim president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), criticized the Trump/Pence administration for what she deemed a “withholding of intelligence from patients.” In an interview with MTV News, she questioned the intentions of the rule and mentioned, “It is unfathomable that anyone would aspire to prevent health care providers from giving their patients accurate medical intelligence and referrals to other safe, excellent health care providers yet that is exactly what this Title X gag rule is meant to do.”


Recommended Parenthood did not confirm the exact financial details of how its departure from Title X would come to impact patients or the corporation going forward, CBS News reported, nevertheless it promised to continue distributing care to its patients. In a press release, the business theorized that “people who can’t find or can’t afford another reproductive health care provider may be left with nowhere to turn or go without birth control altogether. Even in areas where other providers are present, the providers often lack the capacity to serve added patients.”


Ragsdale told MTV News she considered patients would still seek out the abortion services they required, however choices could be limited. “Some people will delay or go without care,” she mentioned. “We already visualize people have to drive fantastic distances to receive abortion care and right now we might visualize them having to drive hundreds of miles just to obtain birth control, pregnancy testing, or cancer screenings.”


Proposed Parenthood is currently calling on the Senate to pass a spending bill that would block the gag rule, and politicians including Speaker of the Residence Nancy Pelosi, Senator Kamala Harris, and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke proposed their support of the company and its work.


News of the gag rule comes because the Trump administration keeps it up and continues to quota and attack reproductive healthcare options In the United States. Proposed Parenthood noted a 63 percent increase in expenditures aimed at preventing abortions since 2018, and lawmakers in a couple of states, including Ohio and Alabama, have suggested total bans on abortions, which would directly violate Roe v. Wade.