<p><a href="https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/hyde-amendment"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Planned Parenthood does not use federal funding for abortion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and has not done so since 1976, when the Hyde Amendment was implemented. Planned Parenthood serves 41 percent of Title X patients, providing affordable birth control, STD treatment and testing, and cancer screenings.</span></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"This is an attempt to take away women's basic rights, period. Under this rule, people will not get the health care they need. They won't get birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, or even general women's health exams," </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/18/612222570/white-house-to-ban-federal-funds-for-clinics-that-discuss-abortion-with-patients%20/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president Dawn Laguens</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Everyone has the right to information about their health care — including information about safe, legal abortion, and every woman deserves the best medical care and information, no matter how much money she makes or where she lives. No matter what. They won't get it under this rule.”</span></p><h3><b>Attack on Birth Control </b></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While the focus of the rule may be abortion, however, </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/03/06/texas-redirects-womens-health-care-funds-to-shady-anti-abortion-group/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the largest impact will be to cut off people (women and men alike) from affordable birth control</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Both of the people chosen to run the Title X program under the Trump administration promote policies and messaging that say sex is for procreation only, and that people should wait until marriage to have sex. </span><a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/things-to-know-about-valerie-huber"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Valerie Huber</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, HHS </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">chief of staff to the assistant secretary for health, is the president of Ascend, formerly known as the National Abstinence Education Organization. “As public health experts and policymakers, we must normalize sexual delay more than we normalize teen sex, even with contraception,” </span><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/teen-pregnancies-contraceptives-less-sex"><span style="font-weight: 400;">she said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Title X programs has been rewritten to eliminate any mention of contraception. Instead, Trump officials have argued, women should be taught "refusal skills" (aka abstinence). The Department of Health and Human Services announced that funds will be directed to "just say no" programs instead of comprehensive reproductive health programs.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Is Trump himself truly in favor of refusal skills and the just-say-no-to-sex approach to life? Perhaps Mike Pence is driving this initiative.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2002 Pence criticized then-Secretary of State </span><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mike-pence-in-2002-condoms-are-a-very-very-poor-protection-a?utm_term=.kkgpNVr7eK#.nv8WnEQVp6"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Colin Powell for suggesting that young people be taught condoms are an option</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, because abstinence is "the best choice for our young people.” Pence went on to claim condoms are "a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases" and are a "modern, liberal" innovation.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So does cutting off contraception cut off sexual activity? Does abstinence work? Let’s take a look at Texas. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In that state, millions of dollars earmarked for contraception services went instead to anti-choice organizations like </span><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2016/08/31/meet-anti-abortion-activist-who-now-controls-texas-women-s-access-reproductive-care/212781"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Heidi Group</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, an anti-choice group run by Infowars guest and </span><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2016/08/31/meet-anti-abortion-activist-who-now-controls-texas-women-s-access-reproductive-care/212781"><span style="font-weight: 400;">conspiracy theorist Carol Everett</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, who claims that birth control leads to beastiality, that abortion providers throw fetal tissue into the water supply and expose the population to HIV and Ebola, and that sex education turns teenagers gay. The Heidi Group received more the $13 million in family planning dollars in 2017. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, the government </span><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/22/Heidi-Group-losing-family-planning-service-funding/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">rescinded $4.1 million</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of that funding after Everett “did not meet its own goals” of serving 18,000 low-income women. That may be because the organization does not actually provide health care. “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">There was nothing in The Heidi Group's operations or history to indicate that this non-medical organization was even remotely qualified to provide reproductive health care," said Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Campaign for Accountability, a nonpartisan group focused on government accountability and ethics, says that </span><a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas-politics/2017/09/26/watchdog-files-complaints-irs-travis-county-da-anti-abortion-group"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Heidi Group committed theft under state criminal law</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by taking funds for services they never intended to provide.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Even so, the government renewed the contract for 2018. The group says it will aim to serve a smaller target of 3,500 women with…whatever it is that the group provides.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/05/03/texas-community-college-women-aren%E2%80%99t-getting-the-kind-of-birth-control-they-want-ut"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A survey of community college women</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by the University of Texas’s Population Research Center found that 54 percent of the state’s community college women are currently using condoms or the withdrawal method, even though 68 percent said they would prefer to use more effective methods like intrauterine devices and birth control pills, patches or shots.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Although they understand that these methods are less effective, they aren’t opting for abstinence.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Texas has the fifth highest rate of teen pregnancy in the nation and the highest rate of repeat teen pregnancy in the US; in some areas, such as Dallas, </span><a href="https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Program-to-Prevent-Dallas-Teen-Pregnancy-483746801.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the teen pregnancy rate is more than five times the national average</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Texas women are also </span><a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/its-really-hard-to-measure-the-effects-of-abortion-restrictions-in-texas/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">crossing the border</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to obtain abortions and abortion drugs in Mexico. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So much for abstinence. It just doesn’t work, as Bristol Palin, who made millions as an abstinence-until-marriage activist, until she became pregnant for the second time while unmarried, can tell you. At least </span><a href="https://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20061220/premarital-sex-the-norm-in-america"><span style="font-weight: 400;">95 percent of Americans report having sex before marriage</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Making birth control harder to get won’t stop abortion — a procedure that’s been available </span><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/when-did-abortion-begin-721090"><span style="font-weight: 400;">since at least 1550 BCE</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. In fact, </span><a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2016/12/03/how-to-make-abortion-rarer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">making birth control harder to get actually increases rates of abortion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Ireland, abortion was illegal until voters overturned that law in a landslide election in May 2018. That didn’t mean it didn’t happen; women with money traveled to other countries to obtain the procedure. Women in poverty obtained illegal abortion pills or tried other methods. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Abortion is a reality in Ireland today. Unregulated abortion is a reality in Ireland. Abortion is unregulated in Ireland. The Eighth Amendment has not changed that fact,” said Minister of Health Simon Harris, who recommended the repeal of the amendment that banned abortion in Ireland. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even as Ireland recognizes reality and moves towards a modern health care picture, women in the US are facing reduced access to abortion and reduced access to the birth control that could prevent unwanted pregnancy in the first place. We’ll see just how well waiting for marriage works in this country.</span></p>
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