Trump team gives birth control money to groups that oppose birth control

The Trump administration’s crusade against women and their right to choose entered a new phase last week, after the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was awarding nearly $2 million in grants meant to provide women with family planning advice to a Catholic Church-backed nonprofit that doesn’t offer hormonal birth control and only preaches abstinence and “natural family planning.”

The $1.7 million in Title X funds given to the Obria Group to operate in California is part of the Trump administration’s quest to defund Planned Parenthood and other health clinics that provide abortion services.

Title X grants go toward subsidizing birth control and other medical care for four million low-income women. None of the funds go toward abortions.

In the past, the Obria Group was rejected from receiving Title X funds, even by the Trump administration, because it did not provide hormonal birth control or even condoms — an essential part of any family planning conversation.

But the Trump administration proposed changes to Title X that not only eliminate the requirement for health providers to offer birth control but also punish health care providers who counsel patients about their right to an abortion, stripping those providers of the Title X grants.

That allowed the Trump administration to give funding to groups like Obria, and take grants away from Planned Parenthood, which provides much more comprehensive family planning services.

The Trump administration is currently being sued for its Title X changes.

But in the meantime, the Trump administration is using its new standards and giving family planning dollars to groups that don’t actually provide comprehensive family planning services.

It’s yet another dangerous attack on women, their reproductive health and rights.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.