Planned Parenthood Under Siege
By: Olivia Ensminger, Chanila German
Tags: President Trump, Donald Trump, Abortion, New Jersey, Planned Parenthood

Trump’s budget cuts force trusted reproductive health care provider to seek outside funding

By: Chanila German and Olivia Ensminger

In the summer of 2019, Planned Parenthood removed itself from the federal family planning program Title X. This comes after the Trump administration created a rule that prohibits clinics from providing abortions forcing the venerable reproductive health care provider to seek funding through other methods.

Title X provides services to low-income families through funding of Planned Parenthood and other clinics. Removal from the program has not only created financial hardships, but it has also forced many Planned Parenthood locations to shut down throughout the country.

“We at Planned Parenthood, as well as other major medical organizations, found this to be simply unethical and refuse to stand for it.” — Casey Olesko

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Planned Parenthood is a reproductive healthcare clinic that services both men and women throughout the country. -photo courtesy of Creative Commons

According to The New York Times, Planned Parenthood annually received $60 million from the federal family planning program. These funds helped to provide many reproductive health care services to both men and women. The non-profit organization now depends on funding through state government revenue, fundraising, and private contributions.

Even with the financial strain, Casey Olesko, who is the Communications Director at Planned Parenthood of Northern, Central and Southern New Jersey, believes it was the right decision.

“[Title X] already does not provide funding towards abortion, but this was taking it even a step further and gagging providers from being able to give information to their patients,” Olesko said. “We at Planned Parenthood, as well as other major medical organizations, found this to be simply unethical and refuse to stand for it.”

Olesko explained that Planned Parenthood provides a full range of services to their patients.

“This includes things like birth control, STD testing, treatment, life-saving cancer screenings, as well as abortion care,” Olesko said. “We are also proud educators. We work with students and adults all across the state. And we are also fierce advocates as well ensuring that everyone can access those services.”

Most used services at Planned Parenthood. By Olivia Ensminger Source: Planned Parenthood

Monica Lancheros is a 23-year-old student studying to be an x-ray technician at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, New Jersey. She used Planned Parenthood for birth control and regular check-ups.

Lancheros doesn’t agree with the Trump administration making tighter restrictions in regards to reproductive healthcare. She believes that this will have a lasting impact on many people.

“I think that [President] Trump doing that is not gonna help the younger generations because now people won’t be able to afford it,” Lancheros said. “And the point of Planned Parenthood was to help young people to afford healthcare.”

For many communities, Planned Parenthood is their only source of healthcare. When the non-profit organization shuts down its doors, patients have nowhere else to go.

Luckily for New Jersey residents, Planned Parenthood hasn’t closed down in their state. However, there have been times in the past that it has come close.

Planned Parenthood Revenue compared to 2008–2009 and 2018–2019. By Chanila German Source: Planned Parenthood

“First, we had Governor Chris Christie,” Olesko said. “When he took office back in 2010, one of the first things he did was eliminate a long-standing line item in the state budget that went towards preventative family planning services…”

This had a devastating impact on clinics in the state.

Olesko explained that things improved for the organization when Governor Phil Murphy took office in 2018 and signed a bill that helped to restore some of the funding that the previous governor and the Trump administration stripped away.

However, not everyone is thrilled with Governor Murphy’s decision. According to The American Historian, America has a long controversial history with abortion since the passing of Roe vs. Wade in 1973, which made abortion legal in all 50 states. Anti-abortion groups continued to fight for the rights of unborn babies. They argue that it is not a religious issue, but a human rights issue.

MONTCLAIR, NJ 05/11/2020 40 DAYS FOR LIFE MEMBER: Lisa Hart, a member of 40 Days for Life, holds up an “Equal Rights for Baby in the Womb” sign outside of Pilgrim Medical Center. -photo of Olivia Ensminger/MSU

Lisa Hart, who is a member of the Christian non-profit group 40 Days for Life, believes that clinics like Planned Parenthood should continue to be defunded and supports the Trump administration’s new gag rule with Title X.

“I am very thankful that our current administration is limiting what we call the killing,” Hart said. “We’re cutting back on it by common-sense laws. We’re hoping that [President Trump] will pass a ban altogether [for abortion].”

Abortion regulations vary from state to state. Pro-life supporters, such as Hart, hope that President Trump will pressure the Supreme Court to reverse Roe vs. Wade after promising to overturn this law in his 2016 presidential campaign.