Trump-Pence “Gag Rule” Threatens Health Care

POUGHKEEPSIE – It has been widely reported that the Trump-Pence Administration will soon make good on its campaign promise to defund Planned Parenthood, depriving thousands of Mid-Hudson Valley residents of their right to information about their health.

The White House is expected to announce new rules on the Title X federal family planning program designed to make it impossible for patients to get birth control or preventive care from providers like Planned Parenthood and others that provide a complete range of sexual and reproductive health care. Title X is the nation’s oldest family planning program that provides affordable birth control, STD testing and treatment and other preventive care.

In New York, Planned Parenthood serves 52% of Title X patients, and we make up 34% of the state’s Title X sites. Of the more than 13,000 family planning visits to Planned Parenthood Mid-Hudson Valley in 2017, more than 5,300 of them were patients who live at 100 percent or less of the Federal Poverty Level, and half our patients use Medicaid as their health insurance provider. These patients receive high-quality, often life-saving medical care at Planned Parenthood under Title X that they would not have been able to afford elsewhere.
Nationwide, this gag rule would disproportionately affect people of color. Of the 4 million individuals who receive care under Title X, 21 percent identify as African-American or Black, and 30 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino.

“Though some initial attempts by the Trump-Pence administration to defund Planned Parenthood were thwarted, we have been braced for a more tactical attack on the funding and services we provide to the Mid-Hudson Valley’s lowest income patients, and that time seems to have arrived,” said Planned Parenthood Mid-Hudson Valley President and Chief Executive Officer Ruth-Ellen Blodgett. “Once again, we are calling on all who value our services to stand up against these attacks on access to care. Many questions remain, but meanwhile, we will fight to ensure that all of our health centers continue to provide quality, affordable reproductive health services for our patients.”