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Planned Parenthood said Monday that it would withdraw from the federal family planning program that provides birth control and other health services to poor women rather than comply with a new Trump administration rule that forbids referrals to doctors who can perform abortions. Planned Parenthood receives about $60 million annually through the federal program, known as Title X. The funds have enabled the group to provide more than 1.5 million low-income women each year with services like birth control and pregnancy tests, as well as screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and breast and cervical cancer. In some rural communities, Planned Parenthood is the only provider of such services. (Belluck, 8/19)

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood's acting president and CEO, said the organization's nationwide network of health centers would remain open and strive to make up for the loss of federal money. But she predicted that many low-income women who rely on Planned Parenthood services would "delay or go without" care. "We will not be bullied into withholding abortion information from our patients," said McGill Johnson. "Our patients deserve to make their own health care decisions, not to be forced to have Donald Trump or Mike Pence make those decisions for them." (Crary and Alonso-Zaldivar, 8/19)

Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States, said its move was spurred by a federal appeals court decision last month clearing the administration's way to restrict Title X grants under a new policy critics have branded a "gag rule." In addition to barring recipients from making abortion referrals, the policy requires financial and physical separation between facilities funded by Title X and those where actual abortions are performed. (O'Brien, 8/20)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rejected the characterization of the policy as a gag rule, and wrote in an announcement posted on its site that, “The Final Rule does NOT include the 1988 Regulation’s prohibition on counseling on abortion – characterized by some as a ‘gag rule’ – but neither does it retain the mandate that all grantees MUST counsel on, and refer for, abortion. Referral for abortion as a method of family planning is not permitted, because the statute written by Congress prohibits funding programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” (Ducharme, 8/19)

Planned Parenthood has called the new rules a direct attack against the largest provider of federal family-planning services by a Republican administration that believes in using any legal and policy tools at its disposal to curb access to abortion and some forms of contraception. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Planned Parenthood rejected the federal funds at the expense of its patients. “Some [Title X] grantees are now blaming the government for their own actions…and they are abandoning their obligations to serve their patients under the program,” said Mia Palmieri Heck, a spokeswoman for the HHS office running Title X. (Hackman, 8/19)

The Title X program serves about 4 million women nationwide through grants to healthcare providers that fund family planning services, including birth control, pregnancy tests and STD screening. Grant recipients were given a deadline of Monday to explain how they would comply with the new rule. Planned Parenthood's decision to leave Title X could affect more than 1.5 million low-income women who use the provider. The organization is Title X's largest grant recipient, serving 40 percent of all Title X patients. (Chuck, 8/19)

Several states have pledged to try to come up with new funding to replace the federal dollars. The impact is likely to vary state by state. In some parts of the country, Planned Parenthood is the only Title X grantee, and in some regions, the state acts as a grantee, with several subgrantees, including Planned Parenthood facilities and other healthcare providers. The decision by Planned Parenthood — which gets about $60 million in funding and is the program’s largest grantee — is the latest in a years-long battle between abortion-rights supporters and Republicans, who have advocated the elimination all federal funding for abortion providers and the “defunding” of Planned Parenthood. (Haberkorn, 8/19)

Vermont's health department also gave notice Monday that it is quitting Title X. The agency relied entirely on Planned Parenthood clinics to provide services under the program. And Maine Family Planning, the sole Title X provider in the state, informed HHS that it is withdrawing over the rule. “It’s important that we maintain women’s rights and access to health care," said Vermont GOP Gov. Phil Scott. (Ollstein, 8/19)

A decision by the national Planned Parenthood organization to end its participation in a federal grant program will have no effect on Georgia’s facilities. ... In fiscal 2018, Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide received about $17.2 million, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But no money has been awarded to Planned Parenthood facilities in Georgia for at least the past four years. (Prabhu, 8/19)

The move will have a disproportionate impact in Minnesota, where 90% of Title X patients are served by Planned Parenthood; that figure is 40% nationwide. Planned Parenthood's network of health centers will remain open, including operations in Minnesota. But backing out of the program means Planned Parenthood would lose $2.7 million to cover birth control, cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases for Minnesota patients. (Rao, 8/19)

Planned Parenthood says it’s pulling out of the federal family planning program rather than abide by a new Trump administration rule prohibiting participants from referring patients for abortions, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is speaking out about it. ... According to Frey, about 15,000 patients are served by Title X-funded Planned Parenthood in Minneapolis, and roughly half of them rely on the funding to be able to afford their care there. “Minneapolis’ own Title X-funded Planned Parenthood clinic has made access to quality healthcare – including referrals for abortion – possible for thousands of people in Minneapolis. The Trump administration’s gag rule reflects a pervasive and cruel series of attempts to roll back decades of progress for reproductive rights,” Frey said. (8/19)

The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah on Monday said its clinic doors will remain open, despite its decision to decline federal Title X funding that would come attached to new restrictions on abortion referrals. “I am heartbroken that we have to withdraw today from Title X, but we refuse to let the Trump administration bully us into withholding abortion information from our patients in Utah," Karrie Galloway, president and CEO for the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said in a prepared statement. (Rodgers, 8/19)

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined with Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates Monday in denouncing the Trump Administration’s new policy that blocks federal family planning money from going to any organization that provides or facilitates abortions. “The Trump administration’s gag rule is fundamentally wrong,” Pritzker said in a telephone news conference Monday. “This policy has caused a mess of confusion and uncertainty, destabilizing women’s health care nationwide and doing extraordinary harm to the lives of patients, particularly women of color.” (Hancock, 8/19)

Last week, a federal court rejected Planned Parenthood’s plea for intervention ahead of Monday’s deadline, forcing it to choose between its commitment to abortion access or continuing to receive federal grant money. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month the rule could take effect while litigation proceeds in three separate cases led by California, Oregon and Washington state. The court will hear oral arguments in the cases the week of Sept. 23 in San Francisco. (Clason, 8/19)

A panel of appeals judges in June for the Ninth Circuit reversed several injunctions that had been granted by lower courts, allowing the rules to take effect while the lawsuits proceed. The full court will hear arguments on the merits of the case next month. (Hellmann, 8/19)

The case is one signal that President Donald Trump’s judicial nominations may be shifting one of the nation’s most liberal courts further to the right, blunting what many consider his opponents’ most effective tool against administration policies. (Frazee, 8/19)