What to Do Now That the Trump Administration Forced Planned Parenthood Out of Title X
If you’ve ever received health care like birth control, STD tests, or annual exams for free, at low cost, or on a sliding scale at Planned Parenthood, chances are Title X helped pay for it. Title X is the nation’s only dedicated program for affordable birth control and other preventive, reproductive health care. The program helps 4 million people each year — including over 1.5 million Planned Parenthood patients — access care they normally couldn’t. But the Trump administration just imposed a dangerous and unethical gag rule that pushed Planned Parenthood and other providers out of Title X.
Even if you don’t know whether you’ve been helped by Title X, you can take control of your health now by knowing your options. Read on to learn how to access high-quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care — and how to fight for everyone who could lose access.
ACT NOW TO PROTECT CARE AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD!
Planned Parenthood’s Doors Are Open
Above all, know this: Planned Parenthood staff members are doing everything to make sure all of our patients can still access care.
Currently, all Planned Parenthood health centers are open and providing services. You can still make an appointment and come to us for care. Our doors will be open today and they’ll be open tomorrow. We are fighting the gag rule in court, calling on Congress to act, and we will do everything we can to make sure our patients don’t lose care.
Why You Need to Pay Attention
While we are working to make sure patients don’t lose care, the devastating gag rule will cause harmful changes. It may be harder for you to get free or low-cost preventive services at Planned Parenthood, including birth control, cancer screenings, and annual exams. Every state is affected by Title X and will be harmed by Trump’s gag rule, but the specific impact will be different state-by-state.
Pay special attention to news about Title X if you don’t have insurance, live in rural areas, are a young person, have trouble making ends meet — or if you know anyone in these groups. These people have benefited the most from Title X, and stand to get hurt the most by the gag rule.
How to Find Out If You Can Still Get Free or Low-Cost Services
1) Call your local Planned Parenthood health center
Use our health center locator to find the health center you want to visit, and give them a call.
2) Ask how much services cost
Once you get a Planned Parenthood representative on the phone, tell them what health care services you need and ask how much they cost. Services that Title X helps cover include birth control pills and other contraception methods, STD tests, wellness exams, and breast and cervical cancer screenings. Keep in mind that Title X only covers preventive care — not abortion services.
If the cost for your preventive care is more than you can afford, ask if you can apply to any government programs (like Medicaid) for discounted care, or if there are other ways to help cover the costs.
3) Discuss alternative options.
The Planned Parenthood representative may have information about other ways to access affordable care.
However, it’s possible that your only options will be to pay out-of-pocket at Planned Parenthood or try to find an alternate provider. If this is the case, Planned Parenthood will let you know if there are any other qualified providers where you could potentially get free or low-cost care — but they may not be easy to access.
Also be careful to avoid “crisis pregnancy centers.” These fake clinics may advertise free pregnancy tests, STD tests, and information about abortion — but they’re often run by people who are anti-abortion and anti-birth control. You can’t rely on crisis pregnancy centers to provide effective birth control methods (like the pill or IUDs), and they frequently give biased and inaccurate information about sexual and reproductive health.
Your health is important. So try not to delay or avoid getting the care you need — it can be dangerous.
Speak Out to Protect Care
Yes, this is scary. That’s why Planned Parenthood is fighting the Trump administration’s Title X gag rule in court. But your members of Congress also have the power to stop the gag rule — and you have the power to help.
The U.S. House passed a bill that would block the gag rule. Now the Senate must push for a bill that does the same. We’re asking you to help us protect sexual and reproductive health care for millions of people by calling your senators.
TELL YOUR SENATORS TO PROTECT TITLE X!
Since 1970, Title X has been an important safety net for people who would otherwise go without health care. This includes LGBTQ communities, people of color, people with low incomes, and other marginalized communities that historically have faced barriers to care. The majority of patients in the Title X program identify as Black, Hispanic, or Latinx.
The gag rule makes it illegal for any provider in the Title X program to give patients information about how or where to access abortion, even if those patients ask for an abortion referral. So, if a patient who needs an abortion goes to a provider who gets Title X funds for preventive services, the provider would have to say something like, “I can’t give you information about abortion, but here is where to get prenatal care” — even if the pregnancy puts their patient’s health at risk.
Planned Parenthood providers are committed to giving every patient the best medical care and information available. The gag rule makes it impossible for us to keep this commitment, and therefore the Trump administration has made it impossible for us to stay in Title X.
By bullying health care providers into withholding information from patients, the Trump administration is saying that people don’t have the right to make their own decisions about their health. If you’re as angry about that as we are, speak out.
Again, our doors are open.
While Planned Parenthood health centers continue to provide expert, compassionate care, we are carefully analyzing the impact that being forced out of the Title X program will have on our health centers. And we’re doing everything we can to fight for the millions of people who rely on us.
While we don’t know for certain what this will look like, it’s unrealistic to think there won’t be harmful changes. For too many patients, this will mean that birth control and reproductive health care are out of reach.
Stand Up to the Gag Rule and Stand With Planned Parenthood
Taking away people’s reproductive health care and potentially leaving them with nowhere to turn is beyond unacceptable. It’s unconscionable, it’s dangerous, and we need your help to fight back.
TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE!
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