Vice President Mike Pence Celebrates the Trump Administration’s True Motive:
Attacking Care at Planned Parenthood

WASHINGTON — At an event last night, Mike Pence celebrated that Planned Parenthood has been forced out of Title X, which provides affordable birth control and reproductive health care to 4 million people across the country, because of the administration's gag rule.

In this video clip, Pence says: “Just last week, thanks to the strong stand for life President Trump has taken, tens of millions of dollars of federal family planning funding will no longer flow to the largest abortion provider in America. Under President Donald Trump, life is winning in America again.” 

Statement from Alexis McGill Johnson, Acting President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

“It defies logic and sense that the very people claiming to care about ‘life’ are decimating access to critical health care for those who need it most. From their first days in office, Donald Trump and Mike Pence have worked to take away the health and rights of people, not just across the country, but across the world. This is shameless hypocrisy and we must call it out. The overwhelming majority of Americans support access to health care at Planned Parenthood. Working against the will of the people is dangerous and their actions will have devastating consequences to the 4 million people who depend on Title X for health care.” 

We have long known what happens when politicians succeed at blocking patients from care at Planned Parenthood — just look at Texas, where studies have shown that tens of thousands fewer women received care as a result of similar policies. The Title X gag rule is already harming people nationwide. Counties in Ohio will lose HIV, STD, and pregnancy tests and education. In Alaska, more than 70 percent of people who receive care through Title X did so through Planned Parenthood, and one-quarter of them are also uninsured. Multiple states could see increases in unintended pregnancies and STD rates as patients have fewer options to access care — including Minnesota, where Planned Parenthood serves 90 percent of patients in the state.

The Trump administration is targeting providers like Planned Parenthood in an attempt to end people’s access to birth control, and  dismantle reproductive rights. They are forcing qualified, expert health care providers out of our nation’s program for affordable birth control, exacerbating what is already a massive divide between who has and doesn’t have health care in this country. At Planned Parenthood health centers, we refuse to let the Trump administration bully us into withholding abortion information from patients. The gag rule is unethical and dangerous, and we will not subject patients to it.

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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational, advocacy and electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education.