Donald Trump just took another step toward being the most pro-life president in U.S. history.
The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule on Friday that would require abortion facilities and family planning clinics to be housed in separate buildings, a move that could cost Planned Parenthood millions of dollars in funding previously provided by taxpayers.
HHS Announces Big Change
The Washington Examiner reported that the new rule mandates that there be a “physical and financial” separation between family planning clinics and facilities where abortions are performed if those facilities wish to continue receiving federal funds under Title X, which provides roughly $286 million in federal grants to such organizations.
These funds are intended to be used to provide birth control, cancer screenings, and sexually transmitted disease tests to low-income Americans.
Clinics have as much as one year from the finalization of the rule to comply with all of the new Title X provisions, which go into effect 60 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register, according to a draft of the rule.
Planned Parenthood Feels the Heat
But that lenient deadline didn’t please leaders of many clinics, including the controversial Planned Parenthood, whose leaders say the rule would cost the organization millions of dollars and even force them to construct new facilities.
The organization’s president, Leana Wen, called the new rule “illegal” and “unethical” in a conference call with reporters.
“Planned Parenthood will fight the Trump-Pence administration through every avenue so this illegal, unethical rule never goes into effect,” Wen said. In another statement, the Planned Parenthood head criticized the Trump administration for imposing a “gag rule” in the new provisions that would prohibit family planning clinics from referring patients for abortions as part of their family planning efforts.
“Imagine if the Trump administration prevented doctors from talking to our patients with diabetes about insulin. It would never happen.” Wen said. “Reproductive health care should be no different. Reproductive health care is health care and health care is a basic human right.”
A Win for Pro-Lifers
Planned Parenthood reportedly receives as much as $60 million annually in federal funds through Title X. But this new rule will not entirely defund Planned Parenthood of taxpayer money; the organization takes in federal funds through a variety of avenues, grants, and reimbursements.
Still, while Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics are barred from using federal funding for abortions not justified by rape, incest, or a health problem for the mother, many conservatives have argued that any federal money allocated to these establishments frees up other funding to provide abortions.
These same pundits have celebrated HHS’s new rule, which some say is a solid step toward removing all federal funding for Planned Parenthood and similar clinics.
“Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers will now have to choose between dropping their abortion services from any location that gets Title X dollars and moving those abortion operations offsite,” said Tony Perkins, president of the pro-life Family Research Council. “Either way, this will loosen the group’s hold on tens of millions of tax dollars.” And that is definitely a good thing.
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