ADF, pro-life groups attack HHS move to prevent states from defunding Planned Parenthood

Alliance Defending Freedom, Susan B. Anthony List, and Charlotte Lozier Institute filed comments with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opposing a new rule designed to prohibit states from defunding Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Under the proposed rule, state and local public health departments, which receive most of the Title X grant money from the federal government, would not be allowed to direct the bulk of public funding for family planning to public health agencies, such as federally qualified health centers and rural health centers, unless the states can prove that they disperse birth control better than Planned Parenthood does.

“The proposed rule is a parting gift from the Obama administration to Planned Parenthood, at the expense of women’s health,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “Even though many more publicly funded healthcare centers exist than Planned Parenthood facilities and similar abortion-driven businesses, this rule denies states their right to prioritize funding for more comprehensive, preventive health care clinics on the false assumption that Planned Parenthood is superior simply because it focuses on dispensing birth control.”

“This sudden and deficient rulemaking will needlessly disrupt the primary care women currently receive through the ‘whole woman’ approach of many states,” explained Charlotte Lozier Institute President Chuck Donovan. “Ironically, it will also interfere with the continuity and quality of advice they now receive regarding family planning. The rule assists a handful of vendors the administration prefers at the expense of tens of thousands of patients.”

“We urge HHS to reject the proposed rule,” the pro-life groups wrote in their comments to HHS, “as it contradicts the letter and spirit of Title X not to subsidize elective abortion, and runs contrary to the right of States in our federal system to optimize health care for women by prioritizing public funding to providers who offer primary and preventive care as well as contraception.”