Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday it will use other funds available to the organization rather than comply with the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule and stop referrals for abortion.
The announcement came on the same day Planned Parenthood dismissed Dr. Leana Wen as president of the organization over what Wen termed “philosophical differences.”
The abortion vendor joined Maine Family Planning, another provider that receives Title X funding, in announcing the decision to continue abortion referrals and forgo the federal family planning dollars.
“We are not going to comply with a regulation that would require health care providers to not give full information to their patients,” Jacqueline Ayers, a top lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, said Tuesday, according to CBS News. “We believe as a health care provider it is wrong to withhold health care information from patients.”
According to NPR, Planned Parenthood says it will use “emergency funds” to continue to provide abortion referral services.
The Maine facility tweeted it will “withdraw from the program rather than comply with the Trump-Pence #GagRule,” adding that accepting the boundary between abortion and family planning is a “compromise on care.”
However, Family Research Council tweeted that centers withdrawing from the federal funding program are “freeing up funding opportunities for clinics that do not promote or perform abortions.”
The new regulation, which governs Title X, the federal grant program that provides funding for family planning services, prohibits the use of the funds to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.”
The Trump Department of Health and Human Services notified clinics Monday that it will first begin enforcing the ban on abortion referrals. The part of the rule that requires facilities that perform abortions to be located in a place that is separate from actual family planning services is scheduled to take effect next year.
The Protect Life Rule could potentially block about $60 million in family planning funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers who refer girls and women for abortions.
Last week, a federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with its rule even as it continues to be challenged in the courts.