Planned Parenthood of Delaware is withdrawing from the federal family planning program in response to a new Trump administration policy.
The new rule bars clinics that accept Title X funding from referring patients to get abortions. The funding isn’t used for abortions, but for services like birth control, cancer screenings and testing for pregancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
The new rule also requires that starting in 2020 clinics who provide abortions must do them in a separate facility.
Planned Parenthood of Delaware CEO Ruth Lytle Barnaby says the rule prevents them from giving women all of their health care options. She adds she’s working to make sure they don’t have to turn away anyone because of a lack of funds.
“We are right now still seeing all of the patients that would have been Title 10 with emergency funds. And we are working on putting a plan together to try to overcome the deficit we will have," she said. “Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s been around over 80 years, that we have not had to turn patients away and I will do everything in my absolute power to make sure that remains so.”
Planned Parenthood received 150,000 of Delaware’s 1.1 million dollars in federal family planning funding for Fiscal year 2019. Westside Family Health Care got 205,000 dollars and La Red Health Center got 115,000. Neither Westside nor La Red responded to requests for comment.
Some states are pledging to help Planned Parenthood make up the lost funding. A spokeswoman for Gov. John Carney didn’t respond to a question about it. But she says his administration is committed to working with the group so it can continue its work.
