#KeepFundingPP
Should taxpayer dollars fund Planned Parenthood? | The Tylt
Should taxpayer dollars fund Planned Parenthood?
The Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal that would effectively gut federal funding to Planned Parenthood via the Hyde Amendment. Planned Parenthood has been the target of anti-abortion activists for years, and conservatives argue defunding the nonprofit would help end abortions in the United States. But critics say defunding Planned Parenthood just prevents poor women from receiving essential medical care, and would actually lead to an increase in abortions. What do you think?
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Should taxpayer dollars fund Planned Parenthood?
#StopFundingPP
The Trump administration is taking steps to defund Planned Parenthood by banning them from performing abortion services under the same roof as federally-funded services.
The Trump administration moved forward with a proposal Friday that would effectively ban Planned Parenthood and similar organizations from providing abortion and related services under the same roof as operations funded by federal family-planning grants, according to an administration official.
The so-called Hyde amendment prohibits the use of competitive federal family-planning grant funds for abortion, but organizations like Planned Parenthood have traditionally used the federal money for other health services while using private money for abortions and related services—sometimes at the same facilities and with the same staff.
The new rule would also drop a requirement that Title X grant recipients provide abortion counseling to patients, or as Planned Parenthood refers to it, a "gag rule."
A gag rule would undo protections that #TitleX patients have had for nearly two decades — legal protections that health care providers cannot withhold information about abortion. This rule eliminates that trust. #NoGagRule pic.twitter.com/oWBF4pGeUh
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) May 18, 2018
150,000 in NYC rely on Title X for their reproductive health care - cutting funds to sexual and reproductive health care harms our community and is an attack on our most marginalized. #NoGagRule pic.twitter.com/L3lwvtSCVu
— 📢 PPNYC Action Fund (@PPNYCAction) May 18, 2018
Many are outraged at the Trump administration's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, and believe doing so will only hurt women and families.
Title X funded clinics like Planned Parenthood empower women to make informed decisions about their health. Defunding Planned Parenthood would inevitably reduce access to quality health care, disproportionately affecting the uninsured, underinsured and low-income Americans.
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) May 20, 2018
#StopFundingPP
But others believe the Trump administration is doing the right thing. If you want federal funds, stop providing abortion services.
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#StopFundingPP
Many anti-abortion activists were pressuring the GOP to include a provision defunding Planned Parenthood in their final tax bill.
Hey @realDonaldTrump @PRyan @SenateGOP Congratulations on the tax bill.
— Father Dan Beeman (@inthelineofmel) December 20, 2017
But remember when you promised to defund planned parenthood? #DefundPP
Planned Parenthood provides women—and particularly poor women—essential healthcare needs and tools for family planning such as STD testing, birth control and sex education. Abortion only makes up 3 percent of the organization's services. Not to mention the Hyde Amendment already blocks federal dollars from funding abortion services.
Texas already tried this, and abortion rates rose.
When the Texas Legislature cut family planning funding by two-thirds, or $76 million, in 2011 and simultaneously defunded Planned Parenthood, teen abortions increased 3.1% in the following three years while teen births spiked by 3.4% in the following four years.
The budget cuts not only hit Planned Parenthood but shuttered a total of more than 80 family planning clinics altogether, impeding access to preventive women’s health care and low-cost contraception, a direct reason for unintended pregnancies, especially among teens.
