Abortion rights advocates in Ohio are worried about the effect of what they call a “gag rule” that would ban family planning clinics that get federal funds from referring women for abortions or from sharing space with abortion providers.
The rule concerns facilities that receive Title X funds, which pay for wellness exams, cancer screenings, HIV tests and birth control. Right to life groups are celebrating, saying abortion is not family planning. Gabriel Mann with NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio notes it comes on top of the plan to strip $1.4 million in funding for Planned Parenthood in Ohio that was blocked last month. “And now we’re wasting countless tax dollars fighting in court. But Trump wants to do this at the national level, and that would have a severe impact on Ohio patients.”
But Mann also notes that this week Toledo’s only abortion clinic was re-granted a license from the state to perform surgical abortions after ProMedica agreed to sign the required transfer agreement that a public hospital could not.