Two weeks ago the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, pending the outcome of litigation, the government could implement its rule barring Title X Family Planning Program monies from going to health organizations that make abortion referrals to their clients. The courts could decide in the future against the gag rule when they review the case on its merits. But the 9th’s judges chose to let the rule be enforced for now because they think the government will prevail (and women lose) when the case is ultimately decided.
While losing Title X reimbursements presents a huge problem, Planned Parenthood’s leaders had decided beforehand that, with the gag rule in place, they could not in good conscience continue to accept the federal money, because doing so would mean withholding information about all the options women need to fully exercise the reproductive freedom that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is their constitutional right.
Despite the popular misconception hammered home by decades of disinformation from the forced-birther brigade, Planned Parenthood and other clinics cannot legally spend federal grant money for abortions, although many of Planned Parenthood’s affiliated clinics use donor or state funds to either perform abortions themselves or refer patients to abortion providers. But the bulk of their work is focused on providing birth control information and contraception, tests and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV tests, breast exams, and pap tests. And most of their clients are women of low income and women of color. Backers of the gag rule say these Title X-funded services can be provided by other health organizations that don’t refer women to abortion providers.
However, the Guttmacher Institute points out that filling the gap would mean massive changes in those organizations’ operations, something most of them are probably unprepared and unable to make:
It’s still too early to fully grasp the impact of the new regulations—collectively referred to as the domestic gag rule—governing the Title X program. But available records, all based off Guttmacher’s 2015 data, indicate that it could be severe. [...]
Without Planned Parenthood clinics supported by Title X, other types of Title X–supported sites would need to increase their contraceptive client caseloads by an average of 70%.
