The administration of President Donald Trump has redirected nearly $34 million from Planned Parenthood and other entities to non-abortion family planning providers that agreed to comply with the administration’s rule generally prohibiting abortion referrals by the funds’ recipients.
Of the 18 entities that relinquished the funding, eight belonged to Planned Parenthood. Most of the others were government agencies in states with left-leaning legislatures, including New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
HHS awarded the money to 50 other providers, expecting “that the supplemental awards will enable grantees to come close to—if not exceed—prior Title X patient coverage.”
The department announced a change in the Title X rules in February, bringing back the anti-abortion language that was initially put in place under President Ronald Reagan and reversed under President Bill Clinton.
The rule “prohibits the use of Title X funds to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning,” the department stated in a release.
The rule also requires “clear financial and physical separation between Title X and non-Title X activities.”
Regardless of the rule change, Title X funding can’t be used to fund abortion procedures. The rule addresses the complaints of abortion opponents, who have argued that the Title X funding helps abortion providers free up other money that can then be used to fund abortions.
Planned Parenthood didn’t respond to a request for comment. It previously stated, “It would be impossible” for it to participate in the Title X program under the new rule as it would need to separate its abortion facilities from its clinics that provide the Title X-funded services.
Planned Parenthood was estimated to draw from Title X less than 4 percent of its revenue, which reached close to $1.7 billion in fiscal 2018.