The administration’s unprecedented "gag rule" is designed to block people who rely on Title X — the nation's program for affordable birth control — from getting care at Planned Parenthood health centers. Currently, Planned Parenthood serves 41% (or 1.6 million) of Title X’s 4 million patients.

In more than 20% of the counties where Planned Parenthood health centers operate, there are no other health care providers who serve patients who need publicly funded programs. That means patients who use programs like Medicaid for health care could have nowhere to turn for basic services if they cannot go to Planned Parenthood.

Efforts to block patients from Planned Parenthood are part of the administration’s anti-abortion agenda — which has the goal of ultimately shutting down Planned Parenthood altogether because it provides safe, legal abortion care.

The administration supported many efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and block patients from care at Planned Parenthood.

Community health centers themselves say there’s no way they could fill the gap if efforts to block patients from Planned Parenthood health centers succeed.

An unfair law called the Hyde Amendment already prohibits federally funded programs like Medicaid and Title X from covering abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the woman’s life). Many of the administration’s tactics take aim at patients who rely on these programs. So, blocking them from Planned Parenthood health centers only takes away their access to affordable birth control, STD tests, cancer screenings, and other preventive care at their provider of choice.