This morning, a federal court temporarily upheld the Trump administration’s move to disallow abortion facilities from receiving funds from the Title X National Family Planning Program. This will strip Planned Parenthood of up to $60 million in federal funding per year as other lawsuits challenging the policy continue to make their way through the courts.
In a 3-0 decision, the 9th Circuit Court overturned a lower court decision and granted a motion for a stay, allowing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to allocate Title X funds according to Trump’s agenda.
“Absent a stay, HHS will be forced to allow taxpayer dollars to be spent in a manner that it has concluded violates the law, as well as the Government’s important policy interest (recognized by Congress in § 1008) in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not go to fund or subsidize abortions,” the court stated. “Because HHS and the public interest would be irreparably harmed absent a stay … we conclude that a stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction orders pending appeal is proper.”
The abortion lobby is incredibly upset about this. The president of Planned Parenthood, Dr. Leana Wen, responded on Twitter this morning, calling Trump’s move “unethical, illegal, and harmful to public health.” But public health is not being harmed at all. Title X funds for women’s healthcare are not being dropped or reduced by a single cent. Rather, they’re simply being reallocated to health clinics that don’t provide abortion.
Title X funds will still be spent on several other services, including cancer screenings, STI testing, and contraceptives. The only service Trump’s Title X policy restricts is abortion. Yet Planned Parenthood acts as if Trump is attacking women’s healthcare in its entirety.
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