Will Title X Funding Ban Shutter Abortion Clinics?

FEATURING JESSICA MASON PIEKLO –  The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would begin immediately enforcing its ban on health clinics that receive tax dollars from referring pregnant women to get abortions.

There are currently numerous lawsuits challenging the rule but the Department of Health and Human Services has been given the green light to begin enforcement.

The move prompted a major clinic in Maine to drop out of the government’s funding program. George Hill, president of Maine Family Planning said in an interview with AP, “It is objectionable that the federal government is so arrogant as to dictate what our medical professionals can and cannot say to our patients.”

On Tuesday Planned Parenthood, the most high profile abortion provider in the US, also chose to forego federal funds rather than stop offering abortions. In the same week Planned Parenthood’s board unexpectedly ousted its new head Dr. Leana Wen over what some are characterizing as “philosophical differences.”

Jessica Mason Pieklo is Vice President of Law and the Courts at Rewire.News. She is a writer and adjunct law professor in Boulder, Colorado. She is the former assistant director of the Health Law Clinic at Hamline Law School in St. Paul, Minnesota and former litigator.