Different Takes: Title X Proposal Jeopardizes Women’s Health Care; Trump’s Plan Exposes Planned Parenthood Lies

Los Angeles Times: Once Again, The Trump Administration Is Out To Mess With Women's Healthcare
In announcing a new effort to limit access to federal family planning dollars, the White House said its proposed rule would fulfill President Trump's promise "to continue to improve women's health." That's laughable. The proposal outlined Friday would deny federal Title X family planning funds to organizations that provide abortions — most notably, Planned Parenthood — unless they do so through physically separate offices with separate staffs. Rather than improve women's health, this rule would do the exact opposite — it could end up destabilizing the community health providers and clinics that are a lifeline for low-income women across the country. (5/22)

Seattle Times: Reject Back-Channel Attempt To Defund Planned Parenthood
Women should be informed of all their options when they seek reproductive health care, including their ability to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. But a new proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration would threaten this basic flow of information, while simultaneously cutting off money for clinics to provide vital preventive health care and access to contraceptives. (5/21)

Bloomberg: Trump Tries Restricting Abortion By Other Means
The Trump administration is proposing to withhold Title X family planning funding from any facility that provides abortion services or makes referrals for them. It’s a sideways attack on abortion rights, taken after abortion opponents have failed to convince either the legal system or their fellow citizens of the rightness of their cause.Federal funding — from both Title X and Medicaid — is never used for abortions in the U.S., except in very rare cases involving rape or maternal life endangerment. This has been the case for more than 40 years. To help low-income women afford the service, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers use only private funding. Separately, many of these clinics also provide the kind of family planning and health services that Title X funds help pay for — including birth control and screening for cancer and HIV. Trump is using that funding as leverage to persuade the clinics to stop providing abortions altogether, apparently betting that they will care more about preserving the other women’s health services than he does. (5/21)

The Washington Post: Neil Gorsuch Might Not Handle An Abortion Case The Way Conservatives Want
On Friday, the White House pleased the pro-life Republican base, and enraged pro-choice opponents, by announcing plans for new regulations on health clinics funded by Title X, the 48-year-old federal program that assists family-planning services for low-income people. President Trump was set to give a speech about them Tuesday night at a pro-life fundraiser. The policy would require a “bright line” of physical as well as financial separation between these entities’ family-planning programs and any program that provides or supports abortion. Title X recipients could not refer clients to abortion clinics and could even opt out of the current regulatory requirement that they provide neutral, “nondirective” counseling about abortion to clients who request it. (Charles Lane, 5/21)

Kansas City Star: Unnecessary Assault On Women With Anti-Abortion Gag Rule
The Trump administration’s decision last Friday to implement a dangerous “domestic gag rule” is an unprecedented move that will devastate the health care of millions of women across the country, including here in Missouri. The rule will strip any clinic of Title X federal family planning funding for offering, referring or even mentioning abortion to patients. This is a direct attack on free speech and health care, which women have a constitutional right to receive. It is downright terrifying that the Trump administration is dictating to doctors what they can and cannot tell their patients about their health care options, holding much-needed federal funding over their heads. (Alison Dreith, 5/21)

The National Review: Planned Parenthood's 3 Percent Lie Exposed With Title X Funding
The Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Department will announce a new proposal this week to remove Title X funding from health-care providers that perform abortion procedures. The policy, as described in our editorial last week, is an effort to bring administrative policy in line with existing legislation, which already stipulates that federal dollars cannot be used to fund abortion. The resounding backlash from abortion-rights groups has been, predictably, both vicious and deceptive. Activists have incorrectly labeled the new policy a “gag rule,” despite the fact that it will explicitly permit health-care providers to discuss abortion with patients (though it disallows direct abortion referrals). (Alexandra Desanctis, 5/21)

The Federalist: How To Take Down Planned Parenthood Now That Trump Landed A Punch
President Trump’s administration is bringing back a Reagan-era rule that would pull federal birth control funds from clinics that sell abortion. Planned Parenthood, which is by far the nation’s largest and wealthiest abortion provider, has the most to lose. It is the largest single recipient of Title X funds, to the tune of about $80 million per year. The new regulation is a good start. It is a bigger blow to Planned Parenthood than anything the establishment Republicans have ever done. But more action is needed to take PP down. (Willis L. Krumholz, 5/21)