The Trump administration announced on Monday it would be re-allocating $33.6 million in funds made available when Planned Parenthood and other grantees left the Title X program to healthcare groups that provide health care instead of abortions for fiscal year 2019.
“Today, the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) announced $33.6 million in fiscal year 2019 funding awards to 50 current Title X grantees in order to supplement their family planning services. The funds awarded were relinquished by grantees that left the Title X program rather than comply with statutory and regulatory requirements prohibiting federal funding where abortion is a method of family planning. HHS expects that the supplemental awards will enable grantees to come close to — if not exceed — prior Title X patient coverage,” Health and Human Services told Life News in an e-mail.
Planned Parenthood announced in August it would be leaving the Title X family-planning program to avoid compliance with new Trump administration rules regarding abortion counseling. The rules prohibit Title X grantees from providing or referring patients for abortions and would have compelled Planned parenthood to separate its abortion business from its healthcare services to continue to receive funding under the Title X program. This would require Planned Parenthood to house abortion practices in separate facilities with separate staff from the remainder of their family-planning services.
Despite efforts by Planned Parenthood, multiple Title X grantees, and 22 states to block the Trump administration’s rules, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted preliminary injunctions against the new rules in June. And an 11-judge panel of the 9th circuit refused to reinstate the injunction during a hearing in San Francisco last week, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Planned Parenthood hoped to remain in the program while the matter continued to be litigated, but was ultimately forced to withdraw from the program, as the new rules require organizations to show “good-faith efforts” to comply. State health departments or agencies in Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts have also withdrawn from the program, Catholic News Agency reports.
“The Trump administration has forced Planned Parenthood grantees out of Title X,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s acting president in August. “The impact of the Trump administration’s gag rule will reverberate across the country.”
HHS officials told NPR, however, that Planned Parenthood’s withdrawal from Title X was entirely its own doing.
“Every grantee had the choice to accept the grant and comply with the program’s regulations or not accept the grant if they did not want to comply,” HHS officials said on August 19. “Some grantees are now blaming the government for their own actions — having chosen to accept the grant while failing to comply with the regulations that accompany it — and they are abandoning their obligations to serve their patients under the program.”
Critics contend Planned Parenthood’s decision to withdraw from the program underscores the fact that the organization’s number one priority is abortion.
“Planned Parenthood could have chosen to make the investment to restructure to be compliant with federal law, or have chosen to abandon abortion altogether and focus instead on women’s health,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with the Catholic Association. “Instead, the abortion chain is walking away from tens of millions of dollars of money earmarked to help low income women.”
Planned Parenthood’s loss has proven to be a gain for many others, as a dozens of health facilities will now be receiving federal funding.
“Today’s awards prioritize unserved and underserved jurisdictions and low-income individuals. These awards also prioritize filling service gaps left by the grantees that chose to leave the Title X program rather than comply with the law,” HHS said. “HHS is committed to ensuring that Americans have access to high-quality, affordable family planning services, contraceptive care, cancer and HIV screenings, health education, and other health and social services.”
According to a January Marist poll, a large majority of Americans, even among independents and Democrats, oppose taxpayer-funded abortions.
Pro-life advocates are applauding the Trump administration for recognizing the moral quagmire created by taxpayer-funded abortions.
“We thank President Trump for taking decisive action to disentangle taxpayers from the big abortion industry led by Planned Parenthood,” said Susan B. Anthony List List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Photo: AP Images
