California has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration in an attempt to stop new regulations that would take away millions of dollars in federal funding from Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortions.
California attorney general Xavier Becerra said the the administration’s changes to Title X, the federal family planning program, would punish doctors and clinics for providing women with a clear picture of their reproductive options.
Millions of low-income patients receive reproductive health services every year through Title X. Programs that receive funding from Title X offer a variety of services, such as preventative screenings for breast and cervical cancers, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptives.
The new regulations would prohibit organizations that provide women with referrals for abortions from accepting federal funds for family planning.
These regulations also require a separation of family planning and abortion services at clinics that provide both.
“This is 2019, not 1920,” Becerra said in an interview. “Jeopardizing the health of women is not what we should be doing in the year 2019.”
Planned Parenthood receives between $100 million and $60 million from Title X every year, but the new regulations would likely exclude many of the organization’s clinics from eligibility for the program in the future.
“Planned Parenthood will fight the Trump-Pence administration through every avenue so this illegal, unethical rule never goes into effect,” Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen said.
There are several anti-abortion organizations that support the administration’s new regulations.
Patrina Mosley, the director of Life, Culture and Women’s Advocacy at the conservative Family Research Council, said clinics like Planned Parenthood had been operating “against the very statute for which the money is intended” by giving referrals for abortions.
“When the administration does something that the left doesn’t like, they go to court. This is the habitual pattern,” she added.
Several other states plan to sue the Trump Administration over the new rules, including Washington D.C., Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
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