How Trump's Abortion Rule Will Disproportionately Affect Women of Color
Updated, July 23, 2019: According to The Hill, new restrictions from the Trump administration mean that family planning clinics that receive taxpayer funds, including Title X funding, will no longer be able to provide referrals for abortion. Family planning services that receive this funding must also be financially separate from any abortion services, and abortion services and Title X services will also need to take place in separate facilities.
Though federal law already prohibits taxpayer funds to be used for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the woman's life, clinics like Planned Parenthood have been able to use Title X funding to provide health care to low-income patients.
While the Trump administration initially said the rule would take effect immediately, they are now pausing enforcement in an effort to giving clinics "time to comply with its new rule," according to the Associated Press. Now, clinics will need to submit a compliance plan in August and must show they're carrying out "most of the new requirements" by mid-September. By next March, clinics will need to separate office space and exam rooms from the facilities that offer abortions.
Back in March, ELLE.com explored how the Title X rule will specifically affect women and families of color. Read the original story, below.
Original post, March 1, 2019: In late February, the Trump administration finally released its Title X "gag rule," the name some advocates have given to a new rule that would make it illegal for health care providers who receive federal Title X funding to give referrals for abortions. Currently, health centers can apply for Title X funding in order to provide affordable reproductive health care to low-income patients, which often includes women and families of color.
Besides making it illegal for providers to refer patients for abortions, the ruling also includes what's called "physical separation," which could require health centers to have things like separate entrances, or even separate staffs, simply to provide abortions. But what does it all mean? According to Planned Parenthood, with the new rule, health care providers would need to decide if they want to withhold information from their patients or be forced to leave the program and forgo funding. There's a 60-day window after official publication before the rule goes into effect and can then be challenged in court.
Reproductive health care is health care and health care is a basic human right. This rule undermines patient rights and we will not let this stand. We will never stop fighting for everyone’s ability to access affordable, quality health care. #NoGagRule pic.twitter.com/KnnLzINj6R
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) February 22, 2019
On the day the ruling was released, Planned Parenthood tweeted that the majority of patients who receive care through Title X identify as Hispanic, Latino, or people of color, and Planned Parenthood serves 41 percent of the four million people who use Title X health centers.
Vox also recently reported that Planned Parenthood "is the only option for low-income patients" in many places. The site references a 2015 Guttmacher Institute analysis that said in 103 counties, Planned Parenthood is the "only provider of publicly funded contraceptives," and that according to another analysis by the same institute, "other providers would have to increase their caseloads by an average of 70 percent to serve all the patients currently seen by Planned Parenthood."
Liz, a 22-year-old student and patient at Planned Parenthood in Arizona who comes from a mixed-status family, spoke to ELLE.com about her concerns following the new rule. "I never set a foot in a hospital or a doctor's clinic or anything like that until a few years ago when my brother was diagnosed with cancer," she said. "As we started navigating that health care journey, I started learning about annual check-ups and that I should be screening for cancer. I was really afraid, and I didn't know where to start. Conversations like these were very taboo in my family. We just never knew where to go because [with] our mixed statuses, some of us don't qualify for certain financial aid that would cover our medical bills."
She learned about Planned Parenthood through a friend and decided to go for a general check-up and then later to learn about birth control. Liz only learned that she qualified as a Title X patient—and therefore only had to pay half of the cost for her birth control—when she went up to pay after her appointment. "But even then, I didn't know what Title X was until I started listening to people talk about defunding Planned Parenthood, and then I started asking questions," she said. "This was the only clinic that, not only did I feel comfortable in," noting that people at her Planned Parenthood speak Spanish, "but it was the only one that provided a stable financial aid plan, per se, for my family."
When asked how it feels to watch the Trump administration follow through with a rule that would especially affect low-income women and women of color, Liz said it wasn't surprising. "There were a lot of rumors about what this administration wanted to do. I identify as a Latina woman. There’s been record of all these attacks on people of color, and now it’s women of color, so it’s just the same story over and over again."
Trump has also recently ramped up his anti-abortion rhetoric, asking in his State of the Union for Congress to prohibit "late-term abortion" and spreading other misinformation about reproductive healthcare.
And for Liz, a rule like this can make her feel out of control of her own care. "Without the Title X program, many patients like myself would lose access to almost free, basic needs, like the birth control I’m on," she said. "Making sure that I’m healthy is really important to me, but it feels like it’s in the hands of folks in the White House negotiating my life. It's a little scary to leave it up to somebody else."
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