After President Trump Defunds Planned Parenthood Again, Abortion Biz Claims He “Wants to Control Women”

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 18, 2018   |   4:41PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood is lashing out with all kinds of attacks against the Trump administration over newly proposed cuts to its taxpayer funding.

On Friday, the administration proposed a new “Protect Life Rule” that would defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses of tens of millions of tax dollars under Title X.

The United States spends about $260 million in Title X funds annually for family planning for low-income individuals, and Planned Parenthood is a huge recipient of those funds.

Under the proposed “Protect Life Rule,” Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses would not receive any of those tax dollars unless they completely separate their abortion business from their taxpayer-funded services, The Washington Examiner reports.

Immediately, Planned Parenthood and other abortion activists reacted with false claims about “gag rules” and politicians wanting to control women’s bodies.

“For nearly two decades, the Title X law has been clear: Health care providers cannot withhold information from you about your pregnancy options. That includes information on abortion,” Planned Parenthood senior policy analyst Kashif Syed told the liberal news site Mic on Friday. “And this rule, what it would really do is roll back that two decade-long guarantee, that right that patients have to get full information about their options. The harm would be immense.”

Far from a “gag rule,” the Trump administration explicitly stated the proposal does not prevent medical professionals from counseling women about abortions. Planned Parenthood and some liberal news outlets have been repeating the claim anyway.

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The Trump administration said it will remove a mandate that forces Title X recipients to counsel and refer for abortions, but there will not be any “gag” on discussing abortions, according to the Examiner.

And though Planned Parenthood repeatedly says the taxpayer funds are not used to fund abortions, as current rules prohibit, the abortion chain believes they should be.

Dawn Laguens, who currently is running Planned Parenthood until it finds a replacement for Cecile Richards, tweeted this gem Friday:

Earlier in the day, Laguens made another absurd claim to the news media, stating: “Under this rule, people will not get the health care they need. They won’t get birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, or even general women’s health exams.”

This also is patently false.

Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser refuted this by pointing to the growing number of community and rural health centers that far outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities and provide many additional services that Planned Parenthood does not, such as mammograms and prenatal care.

“We thank President Trump for taking action to disentangle taxpayers from the abortion business,” Dannenfelser said. “The Protect Life Rule doesn’t cut a single dime from family planning. It instead directs tax dollars to Title X centers that do not promote or perform abortions …”

The proposal is modeled after similar Reagan administration rules that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in Rust v. Sullivan in 1991. The rules never went into effect, though. By the time the court ruled in favor of the pro-life Reagan administration’s efforts, he was no longer president, and pro-abortion President Bill Clinton was in office.

Planned Parenthood already has hinted that it may file a legal challenge against the proposal.