Title X prevents an estimated 1.1 million unplanned pregnancies and 760,000 abortions annually through its contraceptive care, nearly 4,000 cases of cervical cancer through pap smears and HPV vaccines, and more than 100,000 cases of STDs through testing. With more than $7 saved for every dollar of taxpayer money spent, Title X has proven itself one of the most effective and efficient public health campaigns in the nation’s history.
And now Planned Parenthood is choosing to withdraw from it.
Planned Parenthood insists that the Trump administration is “forcing” them out of the program. This is a lie, and a predictable one.
Today, Planned Parenthood announced that — *unless* the Ninth Circuit intervenes — its health centers will be forced to leave the Title X program. If that happens, people across the country stand to lose access to birth control & other essential care through Title X. #ProtectX https://t.co/cDKmbfHvJ5
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) August 14, 2019
In an attempt to tighten the flow of public funds away from any actual abortions — as federal law requires — the Trump administration is set to enact new rules for Title X, colloquially referred to as a “gag rule.” For all the hype about the update, the gag rule simply bars operations accepting Title X funds from referring patients for abortions, and increases the stringency of rules requiring that facilities like Planned Parenthood that offer medical care and abortions keep the two financially and physically separate.
Thanks to the internet, the gag rule isn’t much of a pro-life victory. The number of abortions prevented because a woman wanting one but couldn’t bother to check online after her doctor refused to refer her to a clinic would likely be minimal. If Planned Parenthood simply accepted the terms of the update, its funding would remain entirely intact. But instead Planned Parenthood has chosen to cower to the dogmatic demands of the abortion lobby rather than continue to accept funds with an extraordinarily minor provision to maintain women’s access to care.
So any time Planned Parenthood repeats the lie that abortion is just a part of what they do, or that they value the health of women above all else, just remember the day they chose to satisfy the whims of abortion activists over the health of women seeking care under Title X.
