A large chain of abortion and family planning clinics in Maine says it will not follow a new Trump administration pro-life rule and will lose $2 million in annual federal funds.
Maine Family Planning is an association of 18 clinics across the state that provide abortion and family planning services, such as pregnancy tests and contraception. Its Augusta office is the only one that offers surgical abortions, although every clinic across the state provides medical abortions.
The Trump administration this week began enforcing a new Department of Health and Human Services rule that prevents Title X federal funds going to clinics that “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” Next year the department will begin enforcing another part of the rule that requires abortion providers to financially and physically separate their abortion services from their non-abortion services.
It has been dubbed the “Protect Life Rule,” although critics call it the “gag rule.” Title X is a $300 million federally funded program.
Maine Family Planning receives about $2 million from the program each year. That money comprises roughly 30 percent of its budget, according to the Bangor Daily News. The organization is dipping into an emergency fund, although it doesn’t know how it will make up for the lack of funds long-term.
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