Planned Parenthood Brooklyn Park Clinic Faces New Funding Challenge
Planned Parenthood clinics have decided to forgo Title X funding rather than comply with a new Trump Administration rule that prohibits clinics from referring patients to abortion providers.
The federal Title X program helps low-income people get access to birth control and STD testing and other medical services. The decision to withdraw impacts clinics and patients in the northwest metro.
“In Brooklyn Park, we see about 4,000 patients a year at Planned Parenthood. And about 1,500 of them rely on Title X for some portion of their care or to cover all of their care,” said Jennifer Aulwes, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood.
“We Were Forced Out”
Planned Parenthood officials say the decision to opt out could mean patients seeing longer wait times or increased costs for reproductive health services. But Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s acting president and CEO, said the organization “will not be bullied into withholding abortion information from our patients.”
“We were forced out of the program by our own ethics because we will not comply with a rule that means our doctors will have to mislead people or misinform or uninformed people,” explained Aulwes.
Planned Parenthood says this move will affect low-income people the most because some will not be able to afford medical care.
Trump Administration Position
Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that Planned Parenthood’s withdrawal from Title X “shows it will always choose abortion over health care for vulnerable women.”
Aulwes says Planned Parenthood doesn’t use Title X funds to perform abortions.
