A few days after Planned Parenthood announced it would pull out of the federal Title X program — rather than comply with new Trump administration rules that would have prohibited it, in most cases, from providing abortion referrals or services — its Northern New England affiliate is working to let people know it is still providing all the same services it did before.
Nicole Clegg, vice president of public policy for Maine, says it is important that people understand what is happening with the Title X rule change. At the same time, the organization wants to make sure that people know that "they're going to be able to turn to Planned Parenthood. We'll continue to provide the services they count on us for."
Clegg says Planned Parenthood is also working with the Maine state government and with the state's congressional delegation on a fix to the rule.
She says on the national level, the House budget includes language that would restore Title X funding to organizations that provide abortion services — and the state legislature in Maine also has a "long history of supporting the family planning system and allocating resources." So, she says, "it's possible the state will come up with a fix as well."
Clegg says this is a particularly bad time to make it harder for organizations to deliver reproductive health services.
"When we're looking at the state of Maine and across the country, we're seeing spikes in STIs, an increased need in testing and treatment, to cause this kind of disruption is just bad timing, and I'm worried about the potential consequences," she says.
Maine Family Planning, which provides reproductive healthcare throughout Maine, has also withdrawn from Title X. Combined, the two organizations report on their websites that they provide health care services to more than 30,000 people in Maine.
Originally published 2:31 p.m. Aug. 22, 2019
