Planned Parenthood taps emergency funds to preserve abortion referrals
Planned Parenthood clin- ics in Ohio will draw on emer- gency funds from its national umbrella organization rather than comply with a Trump administration directive that bans federally funded clin- ics from making abortion referrals.
The move is the latest blow to an organization that already has lost about $1.5 million in grant funding this year in Ohio, where courts have upheld state legislation to cut off taxpayer money for organizations that offer abortion services or refer women to clinics that per- form abortions.
In 2019, Planned Parent- hood of Greater Ohio had been awarded $4 million in federal Title X funding. The federal government also gave $4.3 million for the Ohio Department of Health, which doesn’t operate its own clin- ics and instead distributes funds to other public departments and programs.
“In the state of Ohio we have seen attacks to safe and legal abortion access through state legislative actions. Now as a result of federal action through the Trump administration and the courts, we’re seeing this is not only an attack on safe, legal abor- tion but also an attack on reproductive health care,” said Sarah Inskeep, a spokeswoman for Planned Parent- hood Advocates of Ohio.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified the clinics Monday that it would start enforcing the regulation after a three- judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted a stay of injunctions against the rule by lower courts.
Planned Parenthood will ask the 9th circuit court to reconsider the decision, which allows the rules to take effect while the federal government appeals lower-court rulings.
For now, Planned Parent- hood leaders must decide to either cut their connection to abortion services and referrals or forgo millions of dol- lars in federal family-planning funds under the Title X program.
T he grant program is designed to provide contra- ceptive supplies and education, breast and cervical cancer screenings and education about and testing for sexu- ally transmitted diseases. It began in 1970 and never has paid for abortions.
Planned Parent h ood has two affiliates in Ohio — Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio — but only the former chapter received Title X funds in 2018. It oper- ates 19 clinics around the state, including 17 that serve patients under Title X grants.
The Greater Ohio chap- ter is the only Title X provider in nine counties, and it serves nearly two-thirds of Ohio’s 94,000 Title X patients a year. An analysis by Columbus City Auditor Megan Kilgore and Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown, both Democrats, found that more than 10,000 Columbus area-women were at risk of losing access to care under the rule.
It’s u nclear how long emergency funds from the national Planned Parenthood organization will last. In 2019, Planned Parenthood affiliates in eight states were direct recipients of about $16 million in grant funding, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“This is to ensure that patients can continue accessing high quality reproductive health care they need and deserve,” Inskeep said of the emergency funds.