Health Commissioner Mark Levine announced Monday that he had notified the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that Vermont would stop using Title X dollars to fund Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s services at 10 clinics. Instead, the state will make up the $759,000 difference with general fund dollars set aside for just this purpose.
New rules by the Trump administration allow clinics accepting Title X funds to talk to patients about abortion, but not to give women information about or refer them to abortion providers.
“We refuse to let the Trump administration bully us into withholding abortion information from our patients in Vermont,” said Lucy Leriche, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. “The gag rule is unethical and dangerous, and we will not subject our patients to it.”
“These changes by HHS will disrupt one of our state’s most essential public health programs,” Levine said in a release. “For nearly 50 years, Title X has helped ensure that Vermonters have access to quality family planning and we want to make sure this continues.”
About 10,000 Vermonters receive services through Title X at Planned Parenthood health centers.
The state made its decision even before Planned Parenthood announced Monday that it had withdrawn from the federal funding program. Levine sent word to HHS on June 15, ahead of the August 19 deadline to submit a plan outlining how Vermont would comply with the rule changes.
Levine said such a restriction of patient’s access to information about abortions would disrupt the state’s network of health services and providers’ obligation to give patients the range of options. State officials also asserted that complying with the restrictions would violate state law.
In 2019, Vermont enshrined in law “the fundamental right of every individual who becomes pregnant to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, to give birth to a child, or to have an abortion” and prohibited interference with “regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services or information, the choice of a consenting individual to terminate the individual’s pregnancy.”
He noted that Vermont joins Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts and Maryland in forgoing Title X funds.
In his notice to HHS, Levine expressed hope that the changes to Title X prove to be short-lived. The Vermont Health Care Coalition, a group that represents a wide swath of Vermont’s medical community, strongly opposed the restriction, calling it a “violation of medical ethics.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Im happy that PP is going to be funded as it provides vital services but I do have to ask, after claiming poverty over and over again, where does the state intend to find these funds? What other program is having funds cut?
The sooner trump is gone the better the country will be!!
Looking at planned parenthoods annual report, does a nonprofit with a revenue stream of $2billion + need government assistance?
Dont be afraid to say no, its ok.
If PP plans on still doing abortions I DO NOT want my taxes to go to funding abortions. If women don’t want to have a baby then she can pay for her own abortion.. Buy her own birth control pills or have her tubes tied !!! We shouldn’t be held responsible for them getting pregnant .. They need to pay for it themselves.!! Today they treat babies like trash just throw it out, dispose of it !!!
Donna Boutin, and I don’t want my tax dollars going to fund weekly trips for Trump to go play golf or for his silly parades. We are talking about a needed service NOT just abortions. Just maybe the woman that doesn’t want that baby was raped. Get her tubes tied? How about castrating the men? How pathetic and uncaring can one get? Thank you Vermont for giving those the needed services and care and not allowing the Federal government to bully you.
@ Janvt.. Well as the south would say “BLESS YOU” !!!