Trump-Pence Administration Budget Undermines Women’s Health Care

Washington D.C. - Today, the Trump-Pence administration released its FY19 budget proposal, which continues the administration's efforts to strip away people’s rights and health care. This year’s budget plan proposes sweeping changes that, if implemented, would radically reduce people’s access to health care and information through vital programs, especially for women. Whether or not Congress subscribes to the president’s priorities, the entire proposal is a blueprint for policymaking that the administration will no doubt use to advance its agenda. 

On top of proposals to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Medicaid program — the insurance plan for one in five women of reproductive age — the budget proposes to:

• Block people from accessing basic, preventive health care at Planned Parenthood health centers;
• Eliminate the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program while continuing abstinence-only-until-marriage funding;
• Double down on policies allowing health care workers to deny information and care to women and LGBTQ people;
• Impose a new ban on access to abortion for immigrants in ICE detention facilities;
• Slash international funding for family planning by over 50 percent, while also  emphasizing the use of “natural birth control” methods such as the rhythm method over other, more effective forms of birth control.

Statement from Dana Singiser, Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs:

The Trump-Pence administration’s plan lays out an agenda that will be harmful to people’s health and lives. The budget reveals the Trump-Pence administration’s roadmap for blocking women’s access to birth control and other preventive care, dismantling programs like Medicaid, and imposing extreme ideological beliefs on all people. When Congress tried to pursue similar policies, they failed because of unprecedented grassroots opposition from the American people. Now the administration is using its power to advance an even more harmful agenda.

While the budget proposal does nothing to change policy on its own, this budget is anticipated to have significant impact as a framework for the administration’s policymaking. Last year, the Trump-Pence FY18 budget was a roadmap for the administrative actions they took all year. After outlining its priorities in the FY18 budget, the administration then:  

• Emboldened states to block access to care at Planned Parenthood health centers in violation of long-standing federal law; 
• Issued a rule that allows employers and universities to deny birth control coverage to employees and students;
• Shorten grants for teen pregnancy prevention programs;
• Curtailed grants under the Title X family planning program;
• Implemented the expanded the global gag rule, which puts vulnerable women around the world at risk;
• Issued a newly proposed regulation allowing health care workers to deny people basic information and care, putting the personal beliefs of health care workers over the health of the patients in their care;
• Instituted a policy that would deny undocumented immigrant women in HHS custody their constitutional right to access abortion. These women have had to go to court to force HHS to allow them the freedom to control their own bodies.  

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Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education. With more than 600 health centers across the country, Planned Parenthood organizations serve all patients with care and compassion, with respect and without judgment. Through health centers, programs in schools and communities, and online resources, Planned Parenthood is a trusted source of reliable health information that allows people to make informed health decisions. We do all this because we care passionately about helping people lead healthier lives.