EMILYs List Statement on Planned Parenthood’s Forced Exit from Title X

For Immediate Release
August 19, 2019

EMILYs List Statement on Planned Parenthood’s Forced Exit from Title X

Thanks to the Trump administration’s Monday deadline, Planned Parenthood is forced to pull out of the nation’s decades-old program for affordable birth control and reproductive care, in order to continue abortion referrals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, in the face of an HHS-imposed deadline to comply with the Trump administration’s dangerous and unethical Title X ‘gag rule’, Planned Parenthood Federation of America — the largest provider in the program since its creation —  announced they would be forced to pull out of Title X in order to continue serving patients and providing abortion referrals. In response, Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications at EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement:

“Since day one, Trump and his Republican cronies have tried to defund Planned Parenthood and strip valuable reproductive care from millions of women. Today, those efforts have real and dangerous consequences for too many women in America. The Trump administration is using one of the largest and most valuable programs for providing affordable birth control and reproductive health care to bully providers, like Planned Parenthood, into withholding information on abortion. As the gag rule takes effect, millions of women will be left with nowhere to turn for essential health care like affordable birth control, cancer screenings, maternal care, and more.” 

“Trump's actions are putting lives on the line, particularly in rural communities and communities of color, who rely on Planned Parenthood for affordable care. We need a Congress and a president who will step up to protect the reproductive health care of millions of American women and families. EMILYs List stands with Planned Parenthood and we won’t stop fighting to elect pro-choice Democratic women who champion reproductive rights.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $600 million to elect pro-choice Democratic women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 150 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and nearly 1,100 women to state and local office. Nearly 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. During the historic 2017-2018 cycle, EMILYs List raised a record-breaking $110 million and launched a record independent expenditure campaign. We helped elect 34 new women to the House, including 24 red-to-blue victories; enough seats to have delivered the U.S. House majority alone. Since the 2016 election, more than 46,000 women have reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state and national offices.