Oregon Health Authority rejects federal funding to continue to provide information on abortion

Updated: Aug. 22, 12:34 p.m.

A Trump administration rule banning clinics that receive Title X grant money from discussing abortion options with patients is causing the Oregon Health Authority to reject that source of funding.

After a Trump administration rule that “prohibits the use of Title X funds to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning” was allowed to go into effect by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pending litigation, Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics that received government funds are no longer taking money from the program.

“As the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge against the Trump-Pence administration’s dangerous gag rule, we are proud to join the fight in challenging this dangerous and unethical rule every step of the way,” Lisa Gardner, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, said in a statement. “This fight is not over, and will continue to have the backs of our patients in seeking an end to this rule. We will never stop fighting.”

Nationally, some Planned Parenthood affiliates directly receive funds from Title X. Those Planned Parenthoods are completely withdrawing from the program.

In Oregon, the Oregon Health Authority administers Title X funds to the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates. Oregon Health Authority is also opting not to receive Title X funds, though it won’t completely withdraw from the program.

“Planned Parenthood’s doors are still open, and we will continue to see patients, as always,” Anne Udall, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, said. “We will do whatever it takes to ensure that patients have access to this essential health care -- no matter what.”

According to a press release from the state, Title X is a significant source of funding for the Oregon Health Authority’s Reproductive Health Program. In the last fiscal year, the release from April noted Oregon received over $3 million in Title X funds. The state has been receiving Title X money since 1970.

According to the state, two-thirds of the patients served at Oregon’s Title X clinics are at, or below the federal poverty level.

Governor Kate Brown promised to withdraw Oregon “from an unethical, ineffective Title X program that reduces access to essential preventive health services,” if the new rule was adopted.

On Monday, she made good on that promise when the Oregon Health Authority told the federal Department of Health and Human Services that it would remain a Title X grantee while not using Title X funds for any expenses.

“The new federal regulations impose some conditions that Oregon cannot comply with because doing so would violate its own laws that prohibit it from interfering with or restricting benefits, services or information regarding a woman’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy,” the Oregon Health Authority said in a statement Monday.

Oregon is one of 21 states that sued the administration to stop the new “gag rule” in March.

Multnomah County, which provides reproductive health services that have been partially funded by Title X through the Oregon Health Authority’s Reproductive Health Program, said in a statement last week that it “will continue to provide comprehensive pregnancy options counseling despite a Trump administration order limiting safety-net clinics across the nation that have relied on Title X funds from providing comprehensive pregnancy options counseling, information, and referrals.”

In the statement, the county pointed out that “Federal law already prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion.”

“As a primary care provider, I have a duty to provide unbiased information that allows the client to make an informed decision about their health,” said Multnomah County’s Deputy Nurse Practitioner Director Charlene Maxwell in the release. “No one other than the client is able to make these decisions, and no one other than the client will experience the full outcome of these decisions.”