USA – The New Front Line of the Anti-Abortion Movement

The New Front Line of the Anti-Abortion Movement
As rural health care flounders, crisis pregnancy centers are gaining ground.

By Eliza Griswold
Nov 11, 2019

On the door of a white R.V. that serves as the Wabash Valley Crisis Pregnancy Center’s mobile unit are the stencilled words “No Cash, No Narcotics.” The center, in Terre Haute, Indiana, is one of more than twenty-five hundred such C.P.C.s in the U.S.—Christian organizations that provide services including free pregnancy testing, low-cost S.T.D. testing, parenting classes, and ultrasounds. Sharon Carey, the executive director of the Wabash Valley center, acquired the van in January, 2018, for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, after finding a company that retrofits secondhand vehicles with medical equipment. That May, Carey began to dispatch the van to rural towns whose residents often cannot afford the gas needed to drive to the C.P.C. or to a hospital. Carey has selected parking spots in areas with high foot traffic, so that prospective clients can drop in to learn about the C.P.C.’s services. In Montezuma, she chose the lot outside a Dollar General. In Rockville, she discovered an I.G.A. supermarket frequented by the local Amish community; the van parks next to the hitching post where Amish shoppers tether their buggy horses. Driving straight up to the Amish farms would have been the wrong approach, Carey felt. The community is insular, and was unlikely to welcome outsiders offering their teen-agers free pregnancy tests or screening for chlamydia and gonorrhea.
Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/18/the-new-front-line-of-the-anti-abortion-movement


USA – What Happens When We Ban Abortion?

What Happens When We Ban Abortion?
If the United States succeeds at revoking women’s rights to abortion, the social climate will be reminiscent of another country that made this attempt in the 1960s: Romania.

Wanida Lewis
Sep 25, 2019

The battle over women’s reproductive rights in the United States is not new. Since the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, the lines have been drawn between pro-choice and pro-life advocates. These positions have been entrenched in US politics for decades, but have taken a sharp turn under the current Trump administration. Though data show that restricting abortion access hurts women in the workforce, the president has vigorously pursued regressive policies, contrary to his stated intentions to support economic growth for women.

In fact, these antiquated decisions will not only jeopardize the prosperity of women but also their health and safety, especially for low-income women and women of color. If the United States succeeds at revoking women’s right to abortion, the social climate will be reminiscent of another country that made this attempt in the 1960s: Romania.

Continued: https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/womens-rights-abortion-health-trump-administration-us-news-17161/


USA – “I Am Honestly Scared to Death”: Small Abortion Clinics Are Fighting for Survival Over Trump’s New Abortion Rules

“I Am Honestly Scared to Death”: Small Abortion Clinics Are Fighting for Survival Over Trump’s New Abortion Rules
Independent abortion clinics' budgets were slashed after being driven from the only federal program dedicated to family planning.

by Carter Sherman
Sep 10 2019

After the Trump administration announced that providers who receive money from the nation’s only dedicated family planning program can’t refer people for abortions, Planned Parenthood made national headlines by leaving the program.

But while Planned Parenthood is anti-abortion activists’ biggest bogeyman, the bulk of American abortions are actually performed by small, independent abortion clinics. Those providers are also quietly leaving the Title X program — and without the name-brand recognition, political sway, or fundraising firepower of a national network, they’re fighting to keep their services cheap and available.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k37d/i-am-honestly-scared-to-death-small-abortion-clinics-are-fighting-for-survival-over-trumps-new-abortion-rules


The G.O.P.’s War on Women’s Health Gets Results

The G.O.P.’s War on Women’s Health Gets Results

Clinics providing essential services to women are struggling — and closing their doors — after years of political attacks.

By The Editorial Board
Sept. 9, 2019

The Trump administration’s recent efforts to undermine the nation’s Title X family planning program are already having their intended effect, making it harder for women’s health clinics to stay afloat and for patients to afford birth control and other services.

Three weeks after Planned Parenthood was effectively forced out of the Title X program, the group has announced that two of its clinics in the Cincinnati area will close this month — a fate that Planned Parenthood officials say was accelerated by the administration’s changes to Title X. Those changes include barring clinics that perform or even refer patients for abortions from receiving federal family planning dollars unless they jump through a near-impossible series of hoops.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/opinion/planned-parenthood-ohio-title-x.html


Doctors Say Federal Rules On Discussing Abortions Inhibit Relationships With Patients

Doctors Say Federal Rules On Discussing Abortions Inhibit Relationships With Patients

September 9, 2019
Mara Gordon

Clinics that take federal Title X family planning funding are adjusting to a new set of rules that limit what health care providers can say to their patients about abortion.

Though Planned Parenthood pulled out of the program in August rather than comply with the rules, thousands of other clinics continue to use grants from the federal program for family planning and sexual health services. These clinics are now under pressure to make sure their staff comply.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/09/09/756103421/doctors-say-federal-rules-on-discussing-abortions-inhibit-relationships-with-pat


USA – Why the domestic gag rule is bad news

Why the domestic gag rule is bad news

By Meredeth Turshen and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers
09/03/19

On July 15, the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to the Title X family planning program went into effect – and one month later, Planned Parenthood clinics, which together serve about 40 percent of all Title X patients, withdrew from the program en masse. The new rules prohibit providers and staff in Title X-funded clinics like Planned Parenthood from performing some of their core functions: referring patients for abortion, and receiving funds to provide services like cancer and STI screenings while using non-federal funds to finance abortion. Instead, the rule mandates referral for prenatal care and social services like infant or foster care or adoption – effectively denying patients comprehensive counseling about pregnancy options.

Continued: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/459677-why-the-domestic-gag-rule-is-bad-news


USA – Family planning clinics watch their safety nets vanish

Family planning clinics watch their safety nets vanish
Cutbacks have hit health clinics that lost federal dollars over Trump abortion rules.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and RACHEL ROUBEIN
09/01/2019

Some health clinics that quit the federal family planning program over Trump anti-abortion policies are cutting staff, charging for services that had been free and making other austerity moves to avert a major hollowing out of reproductive health care for poor women.

At least four state health departments, hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics and dozens of independent providers have withdrawn from the more than $250 million Title X program. Some have literally had to box up and return unused supplies bought with a government discount. They’re leaning on emergency funds, private donations and in some instances, state assistance.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/01/family-planning-trump-abortion-1479239


USA – Planned Parenthood boldly resists anti-abortion attack

Planned Parenthood boldly resists anti-abortion attack

By Sue Davis
posted on August 30, 2019

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of comprehensive reproductive health care for poor women, took a bold stand of resistance Aug. 19 against the Trump-Pence administration’s latest volley in the war on women.

It refused to go along with the Department of Health and Human Services’ new “domestic gag rule,” effective Aug. 19, which now requires that all health care participants in the $286 million Title X program not refer patients to abortion providers. And if facilities do offer abortion care, that must be physically and financially separated from other services.

Continued: https://www.workers.org/2019/08/30/planned-parenthood-boldly-resists-anti-abortion-attack/


Planned Parenthood abandons Title X funds over Trump ‘gag rule’

Planned Parenthood abandons Title X funds over Trump 'gag rule'
The organisation says it won't be 'bullied into withholding abortion information from patients'.

Aug 19, 2019

Planned Parenthood said on Monday it is pulling out of the United States federal family planning programme rather than abide by a new Trump administration rule prohibiting clinics from referring women for abortions.

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood's acting president and CEO, said the organisation's nationwide network of health centres would remain open and strive to make up for the loss of federal money. But she predicted that many low-income women who rely on Planned Parenthood services would "delay or go without" care.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/planned-parenthood-abandons-title-funds-trump-gag-rule-190819201706770.html


USA – Planned Parenthood expected to leave federal program over ‘gag rule’

Planned Parenthood expected to leave federal program over 'gag rule'

By Daniel Uria

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Facing a Monday deadline to inform the government how it plans to comply with a new rule that bars Title X funds for organizations that provide access to abortion, Planned Parenthood said it's effectively being forced from the federal family planning program in a move that will impact millions of Americans.

Planned Parenthood has said it has no choice but to leave the program, due to the rule, unless a federal court steps in. The organization said it would announce its next steps Monday afternoon.

Continued: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/08/19/Planned-Parenthood-expected-to-leave-federal-program-over-gag-rule/8781566137285/?ur3=1