Trump’s Plan To Strip Funding From Planned Parenthood Can Mean Trouble

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Planned Parenthood

The Trump administration is further cutting funding for abortion providers.

Kelly Langevin, Copy Editor

The Trump administration plans to strip federal family planning funds from clinics that offer abortions or refer people to a place that will administer one, according to a final version of the rule by the administration released Friday.

This new rule has stirred up controversy. First proposed last year, this change is known by some reproductive rights advocates as the “domestic gag rule,” according to Vox. It bars Planned Parenthood and any other provider that performs abortions or offers abortion referrals from receiving funding under Title X, which pays for birth control and other family planning services for low-income patients.

Over 4 million people rely on Title X annually, the Planned Parenthood website states. Federal funding for Title X helps ensure that every person — regardless of where they live, how much money they make, their background or whether or not they have health insurance — has access to basic, preventive reproductive health care.

“I think it’s a woman’s decision to get [an abortion], but it shouldn’t be used as a birth control method. It’s for if you make that mistake or end up in a serious situation. I think Planned Parenthood is important,” Central Connecticut sophomore Hannah Comstock said.

However, not everyone agrees that the lack of money towards Planned Parenthood is a negative thing.

“President Trump has kept his promise to protect the lives of the unborn,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry, said in one of the organization’s statements. “This is a positive step toward making the womb a safe place again.”

The new rule, posted on Friday on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, requires that providers that receive Title X funds be both physically and financially separate from any entity that provides or refers for abortions. In other words, because some Planned Parenthood health centers perform abortions, all Planned Parenthood centers are barred from getting Title X funding, according to Vox.

Trump’s new rule will also affect Health Department Centers, hospital-run clinics and other facilities as they too will not be allowed to perform abortions once the new rule is in place.

“He’s not looking at what else planned parenthood does for other women. If he cuts funding then he also cuts STD and HIV testing and treatments, screening for reproductive cancers, vasectomy and sterilization services and so much more,” Central sophomore Emily O’Connor said.

Once the final rule is officially published, it can be challenged in court. The rule would take effect 60 days after the official publication. A pledge to protect Title X can be found on the Planned Parenthood website.