TIME: Trump’s New Proposal Is Another Attempt by the Government to Control Women’s Bodies

The Trump Administration is trying to turn back the clock on women’s healthcare and reproductive rights.

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Last week, the president proposed reviving a Reagan-era rule that targets the Title X family planning program. The rule is a multi-pronged attack on women. First, it threatens Title X patients’ access to medically accurate information by restricting what providers can tell patients about abortion services – even when patients directly ask for that information. Second, it loosens Title X’s quality standards, making it easier for unqualified providers – like deceptive crisis pregnancy centers – to take part in the program. And third, it deliberately targets Planned Parenthood, one of the largest providers of Title X services. Title X doesn’t fund abortions and never has. But the rule would require Title X providers that perform abortions to do so in “physically separate facilities”- raising providers’ costs in an effort to force them out of the program.

Let’s be clear: the gag rule the president has proposed is not about improving women’s health care. Title X health clinics provide birth control, cancer screenings and HIV tests to over four million Americans. In 2016 alone, Title X health centers provided 720,000 medical exams for women, nearly one million breast exams and over one million HIV tests. The president’s new rule would put much of this life-saving care at risk. The impact of the rule will fall hardest on women who are already struggling. The overwhelming majority of Title X patients have family incomes below the federal poverty level and many don’t have health insurance.

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The new Title X rule is right-wing ideology disguised as health policy. President Trump and Vice President Pence are trying to control women and shut down Planned Parenthood and other Title X providers that offer critical reproductive healthcare. They may think they’ve won this battle, but when it comes to the fight for reproductive rights, we will not be silenced – we will march, we will protest and we will persist.