Planned Parenthood announced on Monday that it will be pulling out of the Title X program which provides funding for family planning clinics rather than follow a new Trump administration rule which now prohibits clinics from referring women for abortions.
According to the Associated Press, Planned Parenthood’s acting president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said that the organization will try to make up for the loss of federal funds, though she acknowledged that many low-income women who rely on services from the organization would “delay or go without” the help they need.
“We will not be bullied into withholding abortion information from our patients,” McGill Johnson told the wire. “Our patients deserve to make their own health care decisions, not to be forced to have Donald Trump or Mike Pence make those decisions for them.”
The report notes that Planned Parenthood is not the only one quitting the program, which allocates $260 million in grants to clinics.
Maine Family Planning also announced its own withdrawal on Monday. Meanwhile, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association is suing to overturn the regulations.
Maine Family Planning CEO George Hill lamented that the new regulations “would fundamentally compromise the relationship our patients have with us as trusted providers of this most personal and private health care. It is simply wrong to deny patients accurate information about and access to abortion care.”
According to the AP, Monday was the deadline for participants in the program to issue statements noting that they intend to follow along with the rules, while enforcement is slated to start on Sept. 18.
The Department of Health and Human Services emphasized that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates knew months ago about the new regulations and could have chosen to withdraw then.
“Some grantees are now blaming the government for their own actions — having chosen to accept the grant while failing to comply with the regulations that accompany it — and they are abandoning their obligations to serve patients under the program,” the department said.