Trump abortion rule would limit health options for LI women
A view of a Planned Parenthood health clinic in New York City, May 18. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock / Justin Lane
Tens of thousands of Long Island women would see their reproductive health care options curtailed or eliminated as part of a new rule introduced Friday by the Trump administration, according to area Planned Parenthood leaders.
The Department of Health and Human Services policy would prohibit family planning providers that provide abortions or referrals from receiving federal funds.
Planned Parenthood, which is already barred from using federal money for abortions, receives nearly $40 million annually in Title X funds to provide services such as cancer screenings and pregnancy tests.
But the rule, which is under review by the White House budget office and will go through months of public comment, would prohibit Planned Parenthood and similar clinics from referring women for abortions or sharing office space with abortion providers.
Long Island has eight Planned Parenthood clinics — five in Suffolk and three in Nassau.
The rule change would affect 13,000 primarily low-income Nassau residents who rely on Planned Parenthood for medical and preventive care and discounted birth control, said Joann Smith, chief executive and president of Planned Parenthood of Nassau County.
“This policy will gag doctors and medical professionals from giving patients the information that they need,” Smith said. “It’s just outrageous. And it’s discriminatory to women without additional means.”
Nassau’s Planned Parenthood clinics receive $300,000 annually in Title X funds which would be jeopardized by the rule, Smith said.
But the Title X designation also gives Planned Parenthood affiliates access to deeply-discounted birth control options, saving Nassau residents roughly $1.2 million annually, Smith said.
The new Trump administration rule, she said, would blow a $1.5 million deficit into Planned Parenthood of Nassau County’s $10 million budget — money that would need to be backfilled with donations.
Suffolk’s five Planned Parenthood clinics provided more than 23,000 health services in 2017, according to an annual report from Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, which has facilities in Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland.
Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic did not respond to requests for comment.
Administration officials said in a statement that the rule requires a “bright line of physical as well as financial separation between Title X programs and any program (or facility) where abortion is performed, supported, or referred for as a method of family planning.”
Nationwide, Planned Parenthood receives 13 percent of the $286 million awarded through Title X grants in 2017, but serves 41 percent of the 4 million patients in the program, said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“This policy is intended to isolate and attack safe, legally abortions in this country,” said Laguens, who argues Trump is “playing politics” with women’s lives to fulfill a campaign promise to defund Planned Parenthood.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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