Maine members of Congress Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden spoke out against the Trump administration’s domestic gag rule at an event in Portland on Monday, describing the government’s efforts to effectively cut off funding for vital health care clinics as part of an ongoing “ideological battle.”
“Women need to have their basic health care needs met,” said Pingree during the roundtable at a local Planned Parenthood clinic. “We’re not a wealthy state. We need to have this level of support.”
Pingree, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, assured the audience that House Democrats will work to increase funding for Title X programs, which provide grants for a broad range of family planning and preventive health services. Last week, a Washington state judge temporarily blocked an order by the Trump administration that would effectively shutter many clinics.
“Unfortunately, once again, we’re looped into an ideological battle with this administration trying to take basic health care needs away from people who really need it,” Pingree added.
The rule — which was slated to go into effect on May 3 — would restrict Title X projects, which provide family planning and preventative care to 24,000 Mainers, from performing, promoting, referring patients for, or supporting abortion as a method of family planning unless a patient explicitly states they want to have an abortion. Title X funds are currently not used to perform abortions, although Title X clinics are currently permitted to discuss abortions with patients.
Should the gag rule go into effect, Planned Parenthood could lose more than $400,000 in funding for services in Maine, and Maine Family Planning may be forced to shutter many of their clinics, which mostly service the state’s rural and low-income residents.
“It’s ridiculous to think that the government should be in the business of telling doctors what they can and can’t share in terms of healthcare information with any patients,” said Golden.
When he was first elected to the Maine legislature in 2014, Golden said Title X funding had not “been politicized.”
“This is definitely a big change in a negative direction, and it’s unfortunate,” he said.
Joining organizations in more than 20 other states, Maine Family Planning, along with the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed a lawsuit in March challenging the gag rule for violating the Fifth Amendment “by causing an undue burden to women’s constitutional right to abortion in Maine.”
“MFP is relieved that the Domestic Gag Rule has been temporarily blocked,” said George Hill, president of Maine Family Planning, last Thursday. “Along with our Title X allies nationwide, we’re breathing a sigh of relief today, knowing our robust network can continue to provide high quality, affordable, and evidence-based reproductive health care as it has done for almost 50 years.”
(Top photo: Pingree and Golden speaking at Planned Parenthood press event. | Cara DeRose)
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