U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill on Thursday that allowed states to withhold federal assistance against organizations and clinics like Planned Parenthood that provide abortion services. Reports said the Republican president signed the bill privately.
The bill went against the last-minute measure passed by the Obama administration wherein they barred state and local governments from withholding federal financial assistance for family planning services linked to contraception, fertility, pregnancy care and others. The Obama measure protected those clinics and organizations whether or not they offered abortion. The bill, which was passed two days before Trump's inauguration, also said that the only reason for the state to withhold federal funding to these clinics and organizations is when they fail to provide family planning services, The New York Times reported.
Trump always expressed its disagreement with Planned Parenthood and threatened that the government will cut the federal assistance. He stressed that he will not push through with his plan to block federal funding for them if they stop providing abortion services. Planned Parenthood, however, claimed that most of the funding goes to preventive health care, pregnancy tests, birth control and other health services for women, CNN shared.
Planned Parenthood added they will never accept the offer of the president. Moreover, the federal law already prohibited clinics and organizations from using federal funding for abortion services.
Meanwhile, the only exception for federal assistance to be used for abortion is for cases of incest, rape or when the mother's life is in danger. As per Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens, the worst fears of women have finally come true. Laguens added, "We are facing the worst political attack on women's health in a generation as lawmakers have spent the past three months trading away women's health and rights at every turn."
Many praised Trump for the order to block federal funding for abortion-providing clinics and organizations. Abortion rights activists, on the other hand, said the move will harm women's health.
