Trump Tries Restricting Abortion by Other Means

The Trump administration is proposing to withhold Title X family planning funding from any facility that provides abortion services or makes referrals for them. It’s a sideways attack on abortion rights, taken after abortion opponents have failed to convince either the legal system or their fellow citizens of the rightness of their cause.

Federal funding — from both Title X and Medicaid — is never used for abortions in the U.S., except in very rare cases involving rape or maternal life endangerment. This has been the case for more than 40 years. To help low-income women afford the service, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers use only private funding. Separately, many of these clinics also provide the kind of family planning and health services that Title X funds help pay for — including birth control and screening for cancer and HIV.