FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 14, 2019
Contact: Kathryn Mavengere, Kmavengere_consultant@nfprha.org, 202-641-6184

Destructive Effects of Title X Program Rule Imminent Without Appeals Court Intervention

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) notified the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that, absent emergency judicial relief, all Planned Parenthood direct grantees will be forced to withdraw from the Title X program by the close of business on Monday, August 19, 2019, the deadline set by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by which Title X grantees must provide “written assurance” and an “action plan describing the steps that they will take to come into compliance” with the Trump administration’s Title X rule. The following is a statement from Clare Coleman, President & CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA):

“Today’s announcement of the imminent departure of Planned Parenthood affiliates from the Title X program unfortunately substantiates NFPRHA’s repeated warnings that the Trump administration’s Title X rule, if not blocked by the courts, would shatter the long-standing provider network and leave vulnerable patients without essential care.

“The administration’s Title X rule is forcing the program’s 90 grantees and nearly 4,000 service sites to make gut-wrenching choices. They can stay in the program, despite the rule’s harms and compromises to Title X’s quality of care, for the sake of continuing to offer some Title X care for low-income individuals. Or they can leave the program and forego funding in order to avoid the rule’s limits on pregnancy counseling and other essential care, contrary to HHS’s own professional standards.

“As grantees grapple with the August 19 deadline set by HHS, we anticipate further withdrawals to come.

“We urge the full Ninth Circuit to take immediate action to reinstate the preliminary injunctions blocking the Title X rule in order to protect the longstanding network and its patients from suffering immediate, widespread, and very harmful consequences of the rule.”

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NFPRHA is a membership organization representing publicly funded family planning providers and administrators nationwide. NFPRHA advances and elevates the importance of family planning in the nation’s health care system and promotes and supports the work of family planning providers and administrators, especially those in the safety net. For more information, visit nationalfamilyplanning.org.