FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06.19.19
Contact: Alexa Barrett, Communications Assistant
Email: alexa@equityfwd.org
Phone: (914) 602 - 3147
Top HHS Official TLDR: We Want To Defund Abortion Providers
New York, NY – Minutes ago, top health department official Diane Foley wrapped up her testimony before Congress about Title X, the nation’s only family planning program for low-income individuals.
In response, Equity Forward Director Michelle Kuppersmith issued the following statement:
“Secretary Azar stacked HHS with extremists like Diane Foley who built careers advocating against the very programs and services they’re now implementing. Foley’s testimony is the latest display of the health department’s obsession with putting ideology ahead of the well-being of the people the agency is sworn to serve.”
“The Title X program allows women and families nationwide to access crucial health services, including primary care. HHS’ systematic effort to overreach and rip women’s rights away by denying them access to care is not only irresponsible, it’s cruel. It’s right for Congress to hold Foley and HHS leadership accountable for the harm they’re causing.”
Foley testified during today’s House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing entitled “Protecting Title X and Safeguarding Quality Family Planning Care.”
The hearing comes after a series of decisions by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over the past two years intentionally hindering the program’s operations, including:
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Issuing a “domestic gag rule” that forbids providers from referring their patients for abortion
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Cutting funding for proven providers like Planned Parenthood while giving a a grant worth over $5 million to an anti-abortion group that refuses to offer birth control, but touts a medically dubious “abortion reversal” procedure among its services
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Attempting to divert Title X funds from traditional providers to faith-based clinics and state health departments
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