Seven judges ruled that family planning centers cannot refer women for abortions and still receive federal money to care for lower-income earning women.
“We believe that the Trump administration is doing this as an attack on reproductive health care and to keep providers like Planned Parenthood from serving our patients.”
The administration’s change in the Obama-era initiative requires grant recipients to promote an abstinence-only approach that research has found to be ineffective.
“We were claiming the sacredness of the space and the decisions that women and families make,” says Katey Zeh of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the group that co-produced the first blessing ceremony with Planned Parenthood Metro-Washington.
Two dozen state legislatures have moved forward with efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. But one of the major tactics—blocking the health care centers from accepting Medicaid—is likely illegal.
