By Jim Sedlak
After decades of rhetoric and unfulfilled promises by prior administrations, on Monday of this week the Trump administration got Planned Parenthood to drop out of the Title X program. Title X is a $287 million federal family planning program, begun in 1970, that was providing Planned Parenthood with approximately $60 million a year.
The Trump administration added, with no help from Congress, what it called a Protect Life Rule to the Title X program. The “new” rule was essentially the same rule that the United States Supreme Court found to be constitutional in 1991 (Rust v. Sullivan). Despite that, Planned Parenthood has been vehemently fighting against the rule and has a lawsuit in the courts to stop it from being implemented. Planned Parenthood tried to stop the new rule from being enforced until its lawsuit was decided. It won some lower court rulings on delaying implementation, but ran into a roadblock when a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the administration could implement it now. Planned Parenthood asked for an “en blanc” review and, once again, the ninth circuit voted against it. PP tried a third time and failed.
The result was that the Trump administration set an August 19 deadline for all Title X recipients to document that they would obey the new rule—which forbade the recipients from referring for or performing abortions. Planned Parenthood showed it was more concerned with killing babies than helping poor women and left the program.
Planned Parenthood tried to stay in the program until its original lawsuit was decided. “In a letter to United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Planned Parenthood attorneys said its affiliates had planned to refuse federal funds—but not drop out of the program.” The Trump administration wasn’t going to be hoodwinked, and Health and Human Services deputy assistant secretary Diane Foley said Planned Parenthood’s proposal was “inconsistent.” This led Planned Parenthood attorney Alan E. Schoenfeld to write that as a result and with “deep regret,” the grantees “now have no option but to withdraw from the Title X program.”
The Trump administration has accomplished what no other administration has been able to do since the Title X program began in 1970. It made Planned Parenthood choose between abortion and Title X funding. Predictably, Planned Parenthood showed its true colors and chose killing babies.
Congratulations, Mr. President.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a weekly talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.