Planned Parenthood Warns of ‘Public Health Crisis’ After Choice to Drop Title X Funding

A Planned Parenthood official in Minnesota is warning of a “public health crisis” after the national abortion business opted out of $60 million in federal Title X family planning funding because it would not abide by the rule to stop referrals for abortions.

“We believe there will be a public health crisis created by this denial of care,” said Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood North Central States, according to the Associated Press (AP). “It’s a very sad day for the country.”

Similarly, Rebecca Gibron, COO for Planned Parenthood of the Greater Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, said Southern Idaho could be hit hard by Planned Parenthood’s decision, with about 1,000 low-income women in danger of not receiving health care services.

“This was not money that can simply be made up by raising dollars from donors,” Gibron said. “We have rent to pay, we have staff salaries … there are limits to what we are able to do in terms of providing free care without the Title X program.”

However, according to Planned Parenthood’s former president, Dr. Leana Wen, only “one in five women” in the United States go to a Planned Parenthood facility for care, she wrote in an op-ed at CNN.

“Now that last woman will learn about her many options,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America (SFLA), told Breitbart News in a statement. “The kinds of family planning services Planned Parenthood wants to sell are widely available, and no one needs to go to the nation’s number one abortion vendor to get them.”

In the video below, SFLA explains how federally qualified healthcare centers (FQHCs) offer more comprehensive services in a setting in which abortion is not the focus:

“Women will still be able to get all the same family planning services, but now, the people who make a gruesome living profiting from ending families won’t be in the mix,” Hawkins said.

Any individual who would have chosen a Title X abortion facility for regular health care and family planning services can find an FQHC at getyourcare.org.

Planned Parenthood’s national organization still receives over $500 million in taxpayer funds annually via reimbursements from the Medicaid program. By its own report, the group collected $1.67 billion in revenue in the year 2017-2018, including $630.8 million from “private contributions and bequests.” Additionally, Planned Parenthood reported it made nearly $250 million in profits in the same year.

Comparatively, the group received only about $60 million from the Title X program it chose to abandon.

AP reported Planned Parenthood clinics in some states are now “charging new fees, tapping financial reserves, intensifying fundraising and warning of more unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases” after the organization’s leaders decided to drop the Title X funding.

“We’ll continue to offer all services, and keep clinic doors open, but we’ll be charging patients on a sliding scale who we didn’t charge before,” Stoesz said. “Vulnerable people who previously were able to access birth control and STD testing for free will no longer be able to do so.”

AP reported that Karrie Galloway, CEO of Planned Parenthood in Utah, said she was determined to continue current services but said the choice to drop Title X funding could lead to “pain on all sides.”

Galloway said her group would be relying on donors to make up the federal funding. Additionally, she is considering charging copays of $10-$15 per visit, reducing hours, and cutting spending.

According to AP, since Planned Parenthood did not provide Title X services in most southern states, the organization expects little impact in that region.

Pro-abortion rights states, however, such as Hawaii, Illinois, New York, and Vermont, plan to assist Planned Parenthood in making up the federal funding gap.

Hawkins says Planned Parenthood is fearmongering after its decision to abandon the family planning funding in favor of abortion.

“Planned Parenthood cut themselves out of the Title X family planning program because their loyalty is not to women but to abortion,” she said. “Now they are shamefully trying to scare women; but Planned Parenthood should be scared as women learn the truth about real healthcare in America.”