Tag: Planned Parenthood

LETTER: Rep. Dean Phillips fights to protect Planned Parenthood

To the Editor:

The recent decision by President Donald Trump to cut funding for Planned Parenthood from Title X is an atrocity. Cutting funding from Planned Parenthood is specifically an attack on low-income America. Because of the affordability of Planned Parenthood, it is able provides safe health care to millions, who now because of the funding cuts could very well lose. This includes procedures that range from, not only abortion, but to cancer screening and other life saving much-needed procedures.

This is why I am beyond grateful to have a representative I know will fight against this attack on low-income women of America. U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips is the representative for Congressional District Three where there are two Title X funded Planned Parenthood clinics. Phillips has made it clear that “Hardened ideological politics have no place in an exam room.” We need to keep electing politicians that will support human rights, not selfish ideologies, so we can stop this attack on Planned Parenthood and prevent future attacks.

Madeline Pukite, Minnetonka
Sun-Sailor, September 11, 2019

Statement from Speaker Hortman on Title X gag rule, Planned Parenthood exiting program

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Today, Planned Parenthood announced that it has been forced to exit the Title X family planning program due to a gag rule implemented by the Trump Administration. The gag rule prohibits health care providers receiving Title X funding from sharing information about abortion services with their patients.

Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman released the following statement:

“This unethical gag rule will limit women’s access to health care, and Minnesotans should be able to access the health care they need without political interference. Reproductive health care is basic health care, yet in 2019, it is under constant attack. DFLers in the Legislature will continue working to make sure all Minnesotans can get the full range of reproductive health care they need.”

 

Phillips Statement On Planned Parenthood Title X Exit

More than 53,000 Minnesotans rely on services from Planned Parenthood and other reproductive providers that are funded by Title X

MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA –Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) issued the following statement on Planned Parenthood being forced out of Title X funding by the Trump Administration. The White House’s gag rule denies this crucial funding to organizations that refer their patients to safe and legal abortion options.

“This is dreadful news and I continue to be appalled by the Trump Administration’s assault on the health care of Minnesotans. More than 6,000 friends and neighbors in our Congressional District now risk being denied access to critical health care needs. Hardened ideological politics have no place in an exam room, especially when they prevent care providers from giving their patients sound medical advice. We must forcefully oppose this gag rule and work to ensure that every American has access to the health care they need.”

Planned Parenthood has two Title X-funded clinics in MN-03: in Brooklyn Park and Eden Prairie. About half of patients at the two clinics directly rely on Title X funding to afford their care.

Title X funding – a grant program that funds family planning for low-income families – was passed by Congress in 1970. The funding provides a range of essential preventive health services including contraception, STD testing and treatment, HIV testing, and breast and cervical cancer screenings. Title X funds are never used to pay for abortions. 53,000 patients received Title X support in Minnesota in 2018.

Trump bans abortion providers, referrals from family planning program

Family planning clinics that provide abortions or refer patients for abortions will not be eligible for certain federal funds under a new rule finalized by the Trump administration Friday.

Under the rule, women’s health clinics must be “physically and financially” separate from abortion providers to be eligible for Title X Family Planning grants, which fund organizations providing reproductive health services to low-income women.

Clinics will also not be allowed to refer women to other facilities for abortions, or promote or support abortion as a method of family planning.

View the complete February 22 article by Jessie Hellmann on The Hill website here.

Trump Administration to Tie Health Facilities’ Funding to Abortion Restrictions

The following article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website May 17, 2018:

WASHINGTON — Clinics that provide abortions or refer patients to places that do would lose federal funding under a new Trump administration rule that takes direct aim at Planned Parenthood, according to three administration officials.

The rule, which is to be announced Friday, is a top priority of social conservatives and is the latest move by President Trump to impose curbs on abortion rights, in this case by withholding money from any facility or program that promotes abortion or refers patients to a caregiver that will provide one. Continue reading “Trump Administration to Tie Health Facilities’ Funding to Abortion Restrictions”

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Offered “Bribe” to Stop Abortions, Says Planned Parenthood Boss

The following article by Harriet Sinclair was posted on the Newsweek website April 4, 2018:

Credit: AP Photo

The CEO of Planned Parenthood has accused Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner of making an offer of federal funding in exchange for ditching abortion provision, a move she claims felt like a bribe.

Cecile Richards details a January 2017 meeting with the pair in her new memoir Making Trouble, in which she says Ivanka and Jared were looking to deliver a “political win” that would mark them out as savvy dealmakers. Continue reading “Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Offered “Bribe” to Stop Abortions, Says Planned Parenthood Boss”

Paulsen’s constituents support Planned Parenthood

To the editor:

The March 17 article “AHCA: Rep. Erik Paulsen Weighs in on Republican Health Care Bill” concluded with Congressman Paulsen’s statement that he plans to continue regularly taking feedback from his constituents on important legislative issues.

Although the American Health Care Act was withdrawn, I hope Congressman Paulsen still intends to consider his constituents’ views on crucial health care matters, particularly in forthcoming votes concerning the federal budget. The congressman should remember that defunding Planned Parenthood is both dangerous and unpopular, as multiple peaceful protests at his district office have already demonstrated. Continue reading “Paulsen’s constituents support Planned Parenthood”

CBO: Defunding Planned Parenthood would lead to thousands more births

In the grand scheme of what Trumpcare would do to the people of this country, this outcome received little or no coverage.

The following article by Sandhya Somashekhar was posted on the Washington Post website March 13, 2017:

A congressional plan to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for federal funding would leave many women without services to help them avoid pregnancy, resulting in thousands of additional births, according to a new federal budget analysis.

The prediction came Monday as part of a much-awaited analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which assesses the fiscal impact of major legislative bills. It was part of a more sweeping look at a congressional health care bill that would repeal and replace the law known as Obamacare. Continue reading “CBO: Defunding Planned Parenthood would lead to thousands more births”

The Phony, Unprincipled War On Planned Parenthood

The following appears on the NationalMemo.com website and is by Mary Sanchez. You can find a link to the original article below.

Planned Parenthood LogoWith one careless comment, Jeb Bush revealed a fundamentally indifferent attitude toward half the U.S. electorate.

“I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues,” he said in a speech at the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

It was a throwaway aside in a longer blather about defunding Planned Parenthood, and one imagines that no sooner were the words out of his mouth than his cringing consultants were drafting a clarification.

The inevitable statement soon followed, admitting he “misspoke” and adding that “there are countless community health centers, rural clinics and other women’s health organizations that need to be fully funded.”

Too late. The game was on. Hillary Clinton blasted back, “When you attack women’s health, you attack America’s health.”

I don’t believe Bush misspoke. There’s something about abortion he wishes to ignore: Abortion is a women’s health issue. You cannot separate abortion from this context.

Oppose it or not — and I do — abortion is a medical procedure that ends an unwanted or health-threatening pregnancy. If we want to encourage the trend toward decreasing numbers of abortions in this country — and no one in their right mind wants to see more of them — we need to bolster women’s reproductive health services. That means Continue reading “The Phony, Unprincipled War On Planned Parenthood”

How Planned Parenthood actually uses its federal funding

Planned Parenthood LogoThere’s been a lot of coverage of Planned Parenthood recently.  (And, once again, operatives on the Right have been caught editing video to skew what someone says.  So much for any kind of values.)  Below is an article by Janell Ross from the Washington Post published August 4, 2015, that talks about how federal funds are used by this organization:

The long-running calls for the federal government to cease all funding directed toward Planned Parenthood have once again come to the fore. This time, a congressional vote and debate took shape after an anti-abortion group secretly recorded a series of videos with the organization’s medical officers and staff speaking dispassionately — some would say dismissively — about the work of extracting fetal tissue from aborted fetuses and and transferring it to research facilities.

And even though the defund Planned Parenthood fight on the Senate floor didn’t move the needle — in terms of actual impacts on funding — it did bring to the fore some important facts about how much federal money goes to the group, and what it’s used for.

Those federal dollars were the single largest source of money coming into the organization and its local affiliates, by far. Another $305.3 million came from nongovernment sources, about $257.4 million reached the organization after private donors and foundations made contributions and bequests. The organization also raised another $54.7 million in fees charged for its services. So, government funding — with federal dollars comprising the biggest portion of this part of the organization’s budget — are absolutely critical to Planned Parenthood’s total operation.

Planned Parenthood Graph 1

But, it’s important to note that federal dollars are not used to provide the service at the center of the political debate around Planned Parenthood: abortions. That’s been banned by law in almost all cases since 1976. (The details of the ban have shifted over time.) Instead, the organization uses money from other sources — private donors and foundations as well as fees — to fund its abortion services. Continue reading “How Planned Parenthood actually uses its federal funding”