TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TARGETS PLANNED PARENTHOOD

…This president is being investigated for many illegal activities, but this one going to effect millions of American families.

New York AG, Letitia James tweeted that Trump’s new abortion rule is “dangerous & unnecessary”.

Well, Trump’s people have done it again, and this time it’s a move aimed at Planned Parenthood (PP). 

Yes, a small amount of PP’s efforts does include abortions and abortion referrals, but that’s only for 3% of what PP does, and it uses money from private donations for that effort, not any funding from the governments, either state or federal.

But the other 97% of what PP does, is to provide health care for millions of individuals that do not have the ability to receive those health services on their own.

This time, the Trump administration took aim at Planned Parenthood by issuing a rule barring any group (that’s mostly PP) that provides abortions or abortion referrals from participating in the $286 million federal family planning program.  Yes, family planning, not abortions.  This move is expected to redirect tens of millions of dollars from the women’s health providers directly to faith-based, anti-abortion groups.

In other words, it’s just one more way that the GOP can penalize PP, while directing money to those faith-based organizations that are against all abortions, regardless of whether a pregnancy is dangerous for the potential mother or for a known defective fetus.

This latest change means federally funded family planning clinics can no longer refer a patient for abortion and they must maintain a “clear physical and financial separation” between services funded by the government and any organization that provides abortions or abortion referrals.  Groups receiving money under the Title X program, which serves an estimated 4 million low-income women, were already prohibited from performing abortions with those funds, but now they can’t even refer a patient for an abortion.

The changes, which the opponents vowed to challenge, were celebrated by social conservatives who oppose abortion and helped elect President Trump.  Health and Human Services (HHS) Department officials have said the changes were necessary to ensure transparency and the legal and ethical use of taxpayer funds.

The move represents “decisive action to disentangle taxpayers from the big abortion industry led by Planned Parenthood,” per Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group.  (I don't think that "big abortion industry" is a term that applies to an operation that the GOP has for years forced to shrink to only one clinic in many red states.)

The President of the, Family Research Council, Tony Perkins said PP and other abortion centers now have to choose between either shuttering their abortion services, or they would need to move them if they want to continue to receive federal funds. “Either way, this will loosen the group’s hold on tens of millions of tax dollars,” he said.

But this will not just negatively effect the abortion side of the clinics.  It will also have negative effects on the other 97% of the family planning and health care for the poor women and families in America.

There were many critics of this move, including 15 governors and the American Medical Association.  They called the change as a “gag rule” that would undermine the physician-patient relationship and threatened legal action to block it from taking effect.  They have also described it as an indirect way to defund Planned Parenthood, which has long been a target of antiabortion activists as the nation’s largest provider of reproductive care services.

New York AG, Letitia James (D) tweeted that the new rule is “dangerous & unnecessary,” putting millions of Americans at risk, and that the state would take legal action.

“The Trump Administration just enacted baseless regulations pushing an anti-choice political agenda on families who rely on Title X for access to critical family planning & health services.

These new rules are dangerous & unnecessary.  New York will not stand by as this administration puts New Yorkers' & millions of Americans at risk.  We will take legal action.”

Planned Parenthood President, Leana Wen called the rule “unconscionable and unethical.”

“Imagine if the Trump administration prevented doctors from talking to our patients with diabetes about insulin,” she said. “It would never happen. Reproductive health care should be no different."

Wen has said the group could not accept funds under the rule because it would compromise its ethical obligations to patients. The provider serves about 41% of Title X patients and receives about $60 million from the program.

The new rule is part of a broader effort by the administration’s social conservatives to reshape how the federal government treats a range of culture-war issues, including family planning & abortion.

The family planning rule is expected to result in a dramatic change in the type of information the women participating in Title X programs receive. Some of the faith-based groups advocate “fertility awareness,” which involves using ovulation predictors and calendars, and abstinence as methods of preventing pregnancy.  Last year, HHS issued a funding opportunity announcement for Title X that elevates natural family planning and abstinence counseling as program priorities.

There are thousands of American women that can attest to the face that these kind of efforts are only 50% effective at best.

Critics also took issue with a provision that seeks to “encourage appropriate family participation in family planning decisions,” which Carrie Flaxman, deputy director of public policy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a conference call with reporters is “dangerous” because it might discourage some adolescents from seeking appropriate care.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the changes will hurt already vulnerable families. “This outrageous assault on the health care of vulnerable and underserved women and families would choke off their access to affordable contraception, critical health information and preventive health care,” she said.

Democratic members of Congress last week objected to what they have called an “unconventional and non-transparent” review process for the rule and called on the Office of Management and Budget to send it back to HHS for more analysis. In a letter, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (MD) and Sens. Patty Murray (WA.), Kamala D. Harris (CA) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.) called out HHS for taking numerous shortcuts.

Just more issues that a future Democratic President and Congress will have to un-do if the American public finally wakes up and sees what this administration is doing to our nation.

This can’t last in a real democracy.

Copyright G. Ater 2019