Planned Parenthood Braces For Fallout From Title X Decision With Fundraisers, New Fees And Warnings
Clinics across the country are expecting to lose millions in federal funding after Planned Parenthood rejected money that came with a condition the organization deemed a "gag rule." The women's reproductive health care provider plans to lean heavily on donors to make up the funding gap while staff members assess how they’ll cope. Other news on abortion comes out of Ohio and Tennessee, as well.
The Associated Press:
Planned Parenthood Sees Swift Fallout From Quitting Program
Planned Parenthood clinics in several states are charging new fees, tapping into financial reserves, intensifying fundraising and warning of more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of its decision to quit a $260 million federal family planning program in a dispute with the Trump administration over abortion. The fallout is especially intense in Utah, where Planned Parenthood has been the only provider participating in the nearly 50-year-old Title X program, and will now lose about $2 million yearly in federal funds that helped serve 39,000 mostly low-income, uninsured people. (Whitehurst and Crary, 8/22)
Columbus Dispatch:
Ohio Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal By Dayton-Area Abortion Clinic Fighting To Stay Open
The Ohio Supreme Court narrowly refused Wednesday to hear an appeal from a Dayton-area abortion clinic fighting to stay open.The court voted 4-3 not to review the case, with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, and Democratic Justices Michael Donnelly and Melody Stewart voting to accept the case. The Women’s Med Center had asked the state’s high court to overturn a decision by Ohio’s 2nd District Court of Appeals upholding an order by the state Department of Health for the clinic to close because it failed to obtain a legally required written transfer agreement from a Dayton-area hospital. (Candisky, 8/21)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Ohio Supreme Court Declines To Hear Dayton Abortion Clinic Case Over Transfer Agreements
Women’s Med Center of Dayton, the city’s only abortion provider, will not have to close its doors as a result of the decision, however, because it has a similar case in federal court in Cincinnati. That case is still proceeding through trial court. Additionally, the attorney for Women’s Med Center said she will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider. (Hancock, 8/21)
The Associated Press:
Tennessee Abortion Waiting Period Lawsuit Headed For Trial
Opponents to a Tennessee law requiring women to wait 48 hours before getting an abortion argue that such restrictions help perpetuate negative stereotypes about gender. The argument is part of a lengthy lawsuit challenging the legality of the waiting period rule, which Tennessee's GOP-controlled Statehouse passed in 2015. (Kruesi, 8/21)
