Washington, D.C. — Today, President Donald Trump signed a measure overturning a critical Obama administration rule that protects Title X providers such as Planned Parenthood, which serve about 4 million clients each year. This move could cause millions of people to go without access to affordable family planning services, reduce the Title X provider network, and tie the hands of providers who are dedicated to working on the front lines of underserved communities. The Obama administration rule prevented states from blocking federal funding to health care providers that perform abortions with nongovernment funds.
Heidi Williamson, Senior Policy Analyst for the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement:
Despite repeated promises that he would protect and invest in women’s health, President Trump has once again shown that his words carry little weight. Worse, Trump’s actions are creating very real and damaging consequences for millions of women and their families, inflicting direct harm on already vulnerable communities. By stripping away vital protections from Title X clinics such as Planned Parenthood, President Trump and his anti-choice comrades in Congress are quite literally denying women access to family planning services and life-saving reproductive health care.
Of course, Trump’s latest attack on women’s health care should come as no surprise. Not even 100 days into his administration, Trump has dealt blow after blow to women’s reproductive health care. One of his first actions as president was to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, a reckless move that will lead to more unplanned pregnancies, more maternal deaths, and higher rates of unsafe abortion globally. Trump also supported the disastrous American Health Care Act, which would have allowed insurers to drop coverage for maternity care and effectively impose a pregnancy tax on women. And he appointed a U.S. Supreme Court justice who could very well deny women of their constitutional right to abortion.
As the Center for American Progress has previously written, the Title X Family Planning Program has been a lifeline for women, helping them to have healthier families and lead healthier lives. In fact, Title X is the only federal program focused solely on providing people with critical reproductive health services related to family planning and contraception, including physical exams, prescriptions, laboratory exams, contraceptive supplies, and referrals when medically needed.
Research shows that, without Title X funding, the number of unintended pregnancies, unplanned births, and abortions each year in the United States would be 66 percent higher.
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For more information or to speak to an expert, contact Chelsea Kiene at [email protected] or 202.478.5328.