Planned Parenthood Withdraws from Title X Funding to Avoid Abortion 'Gag Rule'

What's the story?

• Planned Parenthood has announced that it will withdraw from the $286 million Title X program to avoid complying with the Trump administration's "gag rule," which bans federally-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions

What is Title X?

• Established in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act, Title X provides comprehensive family planning and related preventative health services primarily to low-income and uninsured individuals at little to no cost.
• Planned Parenthood is the largest single recipient of Title X funding. Roughly 4 million women use the $286 million-plus program for birth control, cancer screenings, and other health services.

What are people saying?

• “Due to an unethical and dangerous gag rule, the Trump administration has forced Planned Parenthood grantees out of Title 10,” Acting President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson told journalists on a conference call.

“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,” Johnson added.

• The Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement on Monday, saying groups that refused to comply with the rule “are now blaming the government for their own actions.”

“They are abandoning their obligations to serve their patients under the program."

What do you think?

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—Josh Herman