Federal family planning funds for abortion clinics could be retracted.
Anti-abortion groups were quick to applaud the development, which would effectively defund Planned Parenthood.
« The Protect Life Rule does not cut family planning funding by a single dime, and instead directs tax dollars to entities that provide healthcare to women but do not perform abortions, » Dannenfelser said in a statement. « The Title X program was not intended to be a slush fund for abortion businesses. »
The Title X Family Planning Program was instituted during the Nixon administration to provide family planning and related health services. But what constitutes « family planning » has become a political point of contention.
The law prohibits federal funds from being used for abortions. And even though Planned Parenthood insists that the Title X funding it receives is used for the many non-abortion services it provides — including access to birth control, Pap smears, pregnancy and STD testing — conservatives have long argued that the organization and reproductive health care centers like it should be cut off from family planning federal funding altogether.
