The new rule governing the Title X family planning program—also known as the Gag Rule–put forth in draft form Tuesday by the Trump-Pence administration is offensive and dangerous to women’s health. It’s a political attack that threatens to return us to a time when people of means had access to all the care they needed, and low-income folks were forced to go without.
If implemented, the Gag Rule would make it impossible for health care providers like Maine Family Planning (MFP) to tell our patients about available abortion care if they want it and will also make it harder for women, men, and teens to access affordable birth control, STD testing and treatment, and cancer screenings. It would undermine medical ethics and reproductive rights. And it would certainly harm poor and rural Mainers who depend on MFP’s Title X-funded network for quality health care.
The proposal, which has yet to be officially published in the Federal Register (that will kick off a 60-day comment period), prohibits providers that offer abortions—or even refer for them—from receiving Title X funding. Furthermore, it prohibits activities that “encourage, promote, or advocate for abortion,” and even those that promote “a favorable attitude toward abortion” (emphasis added). In other words, the rule seeks to stigmatize and isolate abortion care despite it being a constitutionally protected service some patients may need.
Beyond that, the rule represents a fundamental shift in the way we approach family planning in the United States. Under this rule, a new Title X project could offer just one family planning method—including “natural family planning,” like the rhythm method—and still meet the federal criteria. Indeed, the draft regulations enthusiastically encourage such providers to apply for federal funds. No longer would a patient feel confident that she was getting all the necessary information at her family planning clinic, and that’s just bad medicine.
Title X was enacted 50 years ago to ensure everyone had access to quality family planning services, regardless of how much money they make. The program serves four million patients each year, including more than 22,000 in Maine. It is an effective program that has, until now, enjoyed bipartisan support.
For over 45 years, MFP has been Maine’s sole Title X grantee. MFP directly operates 18 clinics in towns as far north as Fort Kent, Presque Isle, and Houlton, as far west as Rumford and Farmington, and as far east as Calais and Machias. MFP also uses these funds to subcontract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Greater Portland Health Community Center to provide Title X services in the southern part of the state. In addition, MFP subcontracts with 20 federally qualified health centers and five school-based health centers. Altogether, these funds help buoy a comprehensive network of 47 sites serving 22,631 women, men, and teens statewide—close to 80 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-fee services.
For some of our patients, we are their only source of health care. Undermining this network would not only result in more unintended pregnancies, but also in poorer health outcomes in vulnerable communities across Maine. How so? Teen pregnancy, cancer and STI rates will surely rise.
There is no question that, should this rule go into effect, Title X providers nationwide will be hard-pressed to offer the same quality services to the patients who depend on us. All because of political pandering to right-wingers obsessed with taking away abortion rights in this country.
That’s why we will fight the rule’s implementation, both independently and with our allies, every step of the way. And nothing will stop us from fulfilling our mission of providing the full range of reproductive health care to people who need it. We are committed to continuing to make quality abortion care available in Maine. We hope you’ll join us in defending reproductive rights.
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A sign from the Bangor Women’s March in January 2018. (Photo: Jeff Kirlin/ The Thing of the Moment)
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