This is a dangerous time to be a woman. Especially if you are of reproductive age.

Political agendas are infiltrating the health care system in ways that increasingly blur the lines between medical information and personal ideology.

And, unfortunately, low-income women will suffer the greatest consequence.

This fall, Facebook succumbed to pressure from conservative U.S. senators to take down a physician-authored letter which flagged a video created by anti-abortion activists as containing false information.


It appears the views of right-wing politicians outweighed the medical opinions of doctors.

This is just one illustration of how partisan politics are superseding science. Since in office, the Trump administration has found numerous ways to insert its anti-abortion agenda into health care policies meant to support women, particularly low-income women.

One glaring example: dismantling our nation’s family planning program, Title X.


For nearly five decades, Title X has helped low-income women plan their families and futures by providing 4 million people with access to birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer screening (it does not fund abortion). Now, instead of funding accurate and unbiased health care, the White House is opening the door for federal funding of anti-abortion organizations which masquerade as medical providers.

By changing the rules governing Title X grants, the administration has made it more difficult for providers that also offer abortion to receive funds for family planning services. The new rules impose a domestic “gag rule” which bars any organization receiving Title X funds from providing, or even counseling, patients about abortion.

The revised rules also ominously remove requirements that Title X providers offer a broad range of FDA-approved contraceptive methods.

The combined result is incredibly dangerous. Millions of dollars designated for critical family planning services could wind up in the hands of ideologically driven organizations that oppose contraception, teach abstinence-until-marriage, and only offer natural family planning methods like the “rhythm method” — which, in practice, fails 25% of the time.


Indeed, this year a Title X grant of $1.7M was awarded to Obria Group in California, an organization publicly opposed to birth control.

These policies join a growing list of efforts by the Trump administration to make it harder for women to make health care decisions, but easier for conservative groups to push their agendas. Attempts to expand religious exemptions could allow employers to deny insurance coverage for contraception. Redirected funds support abstinence-only teaching instead of comprehensive sex education. With cruel irony, staff are recruited from national anti-abortion organizations to oversee the government agencies responsible for family planning programs.

These changes will lead to devastating consequences for communities across our country. Studies have shown that when family planning programs are reduced, STD rates skyrocket.

In Iowa and Texas, more than 30,000 women were left without birth control and other services when those states blocked women’s access to trusted health care providers like Planned Parenthood.


The women impacted are already vulnerable. Nearly 70% of people relying on Title X live at or below the federal poverty line. Over half identify as a person of color. These communities have historically faced significant barriers to health care. Women of color and women in low-wage jobs feel the gender pay gap more acutely. And they are more at risk for sexual assault.

To take away their health care and family planning options is to exacerbate financial instability and punish women for being poor.

Penalizing low-income women by limiting their access to reproductive choices is familiar territory. Last month marked the 43rd anniversary of the Hyde amendment, which denies low-income women access to abortion through Medicaid.

While muddling health care and politics may be tradition, we have an increasingly urgent obligation to separate the two.


The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by several states in opposition to the latest Title X rule. The rule faces numerous legal challenges, as it likely violates the First and Fifth Amendments.

But court battles are long, and millions of women need care now.

Health care — especially reproductive health care — is personal. Women are entitled to accurate, unbiased information. In a country that routinely espouses its commitment to freedom, women deserve health care without political ideology.

Butler is executive director of California Women’s Law Center.