All posts tagged "abortion"

White House 'livid' after MAGA senator blindsides with push to oust JD Vance: report

The White House was apparently "livid" after a MAGA senator launched a strategic move to potentially push forward a presidential bid to oust Vice President JD Vance.

The Trump administration was apparently blindsided by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who launched a new anti-abortion group called the Love Life Initiative with his wife Erin, The Daily Beast reported.

"Clearly, Senator Hawley and his political team learned nothing from the 2022 elections, when the SCOTUS abortion ruling [overturning Roe v. Wade] resuscitated the Democrats in the midterms," an unnamed, close Trump adviser told Axios.

The Trump administration sees the move as a way for Hawley to plan on challenging Vance for the 2028 presidential run. They apparently did not know about Hawley's scheme until it went public.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans have said abortion rights are not a top concern after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.

Hawley, who been a vocal populist and often speaks to concerns among the working class, reportedly launched a dark money group to support the initiative, Axios reported. He and his wife have planned to reinitiate the conversation around abortion and have lined up a series of advertising campaigns, including an anticipated Super Bowl ad.

"We think that there needs to be a ... strong voice advocating for life," Hawley told Axios.

Trump and other Republicans think that focusing on abortion could be divisive, especially among independent voters and suburban women.

Another Trump adviser told Axios that the 2026 midterm election strategy should have "aggressive action focused on positive gains in the economy."

"That alone will be the driving force behind the next election," the adviser told the outlet. "Picking a fight on an issue like abortion in a midterm is the height of asinine stupidity."

These GOP legislators hate their own voters and don't care who knows it

Ever get the feeling the Florida Legislature hates you?

It does.

Unless you’re a developer, a lobbyist, or a fetus.

Members are filing hell-born bills for the 2026 session, many apparently designed to torment you, rob your children of their futures, and reduce this state to an ICE-filled, disease-ridden, constantly flooding, unaffordable autocracy.

Perhaps you cherish Florida’s natural beauty: the trees, the springs, the beaches, the wetlands.

Enjoy them while you can.

Sen. Stan McClain, R-Ocala, has filed a bill to forbid local government regulation of, and restrictions on, development.

SB 208 would allow all manner of unrestricted housing to be built wherever, whenever, even if the city objects because, say, it violates their comp plans, harms the character of a neighborhood, or pollutes.

You will not be shocked to learn Sen. McClain’s profession is “residential contractor.”

It gets worse: HB 479 would ensure sprawl, clear-cutting, and wetlands destruction can proceed unimpeded by any city or county trying to manage growth or protect local quality of life.

Environmental watchdogs call it “one of the worst water bills” they’ve ever seen.

This stinker’s sponsor is Rep. Randy Maggard of Pasco County. He may have been inspired by his nephew’s desire to build a house in Dade City’s La Jovita Golf and Country Club community, where homeowners pride themselves on living in harmony with wildlife.

As reported by Craig Pittman, it seems Zach Maggard broke an impressive number of rules, running a concrete boat ramp through wetlands and chopping down protected trees.

The project disappeared a bald eagle nest. Naturally, he suffered no consequences.

Next thing you know, his uncle is working to kneecap those pesky ordinances so everybody can go wild monetizing every inch of ground.

If your town wants to protect the wetlands that mitigate flooding, filter your drinking water, and foster birds and fish, or perhaps want to stop a project that would rip out the mangroves that sequester carbon, reduce storm surge, and slow down erosion, or maybe refuse a permit for, say, a huge gas station on top of a cave system connected to one of the state’s most iconic springs, you’ll be flat out of luck.

Of course, the federal government might kill Florida before Florida can kill itself.

The Trump administration wants to narrow the definition of “Waters of the United States” — which are protected by the Clean Water Act — removing protections from 80 percent of the nation’s wetlands.

They also want to drill in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Anybody remember the BP oil spill?

Control

There’s no aspect of human life the Legislature doesn’t mean to control.

You should not be LGBTQ. Or demonstrate support for LGBTQ people.

Once again, lawmakers want to ban Pride flags outside government buildings.

God forbid somebody display a piece of cloth with a rainbow, signifying inclusiveness and welcome.

“Historical” flags, the Confederate battle flag, for example, will be allowed — in case you’re wondering what Republicans really care about.

Like gay people and flags, women must also be highly regulated.

Sen. Erin Grall has, once again, got her “fetal personhood” bill past the Judiciary Committee.

SB 164 would allow parents to sue for damages over the death of a fetus deemed “wrongful,” even if the fetus couldn’t have survived outside the womb.

That fetus is an American citizen.

“Survivors” could try to recover “lost earnings” of what the bill calls the “unborn child,” defined as a “member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb,” maybe on the theory it might have grown up to become a movie star like George Clooney or start a company like Nvidia and be worth billions.

Grall has long pushed legislation to control women’s bodies.

When Florida passed a six-week abortion ban in 2023, Grall, a sponsor, said, “Abortion has touched every single one of us, and we should grieve for what we have done as a country.”

That incest victim, that 16-year-old who didn’t know she was pregnant until she was past the time limit, would probably disagree.

Since women no longer have reproductive freedom in the Free State of Florida, it might be best if they just refrain from having sex.

“Freedom” in Florida means freedom from compassion for the poor, freedom from learning, freedom from the consequences of racism and prejudice, and freedom from science-based medicine.

Our state surgeon general has decreed children don’t need to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, chickenpox, haemophilus type B, and pneumococcal conjugate virus to go to school.

Now he and Gov. Ron DeSantis want the Legislature to roll back other vaccine mandates, including polio, pertussis, measles, mumps, diptheria, and rubella.

If that’s not enough, Erin Grall has another bill to protect you from your own health.

SB 408 says that if you get a vaccine and it “harms” you, and if that vaccine was advertised in the state of Florida on TV, radio, in print, via product placement, or online influencers, you can sue the manufacturer.

The measure does not define “harm.” Is a sore arm or a low-grade fever “harm”?

Anaphylaxis? Death?

A serious allergic reaction to a vaccine is possible, but it’s vanishingly rare.

Much rarer than, say, getting severely sick or even dying because you think the jab is some evil plot to impair your precious bodily fluids.

This lawsuit nonsense isn’t about sound medicine. The thin (one page) bill might attract all manner of even more extreme amendments.

Go ahead, risk your kid’s health; let your kid become a walking disease factory.

Guns

And if your kid makes it to 18, why not let him or her buy a nice, scary gun?

After 17 died in the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, 2018, the Florida Legislature did the right thing, passing a bill to limit the purchase of semi-automatic rifles to those 21 and up.

That bill, signed into law by noted liberal Rick Scott, was such an affront to the House of Representatives and their NRA overlords, they keep trying to roll it back.

For three years, House Republicans proposed repealing the law.

Why not go back to allowing 18-year olds to buy themselves a Smith & Wesson M&P 15, just like Nicholas Cruz did?

So far, the Senate has shut these bills down.

But this is Florida and 2026 is an election year, so who knows?

Taxes

Thank God for Republicans’ Klown Kar ideas for eliminating property taxes: a bit of comic relief in these dark days.

The Legislature will consider no fewer than eight proposals, one eliminating non-school taxes altogether (HJR 201), one phasing out non-school taxes over 10 years (HJR 203), another exempting Florida residents over 65 from non-school homestead taxes (HJR 205), yet another limiting assessed value to 3 percent over three years for homestead property and 15 percent for non-homestead property, also over three years (HJR 213).

And a partridge in a pear tree.

OK, that last one is made up, but you get the idea.

DeSantis despises all of them.

(He despises a lot of things, but he really loathes what he sees as the House of Representatives’ gaggle of tax-cutting ideas).

The governor calls them “milquetoast,” unserious, and “weak.”

Speaker of the House Daniel Perez points out DeSantis “has not produced a plan on property taxes. Period.”

Perez adds, “I’ve personally reached out to share with him the House’s proposals and he has, so far, not wanted to engage in a conversation.”

A cynical person might suspect DeSantis might be running for higher office in 2028 and wants to claim he “liberated” Floridians from the terrible burden of paying for local police, fire services, libraries, parks, and road repair.

They all need to get a move on if they want to get one (or more!) of these bad ideas onto the 2026 ballot.

In any case, watching the Legislature and our testy governor duke it out will be entertaining, and God knows, we’ll need some fun come January.

Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee, which probably explains her unhealthy fascination with Florida politics. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Voters in this red state enshrined abortion rights. Republicans simply ignored them

Try as they did to mislead and deceive Ohio voters about the horror of protecting abortion access and other forms of reproductive care in the state constitution, Ohio Republicans — from the governor on down — failed to fool 57 percent of the electorate in 2023.

Voters from across the political spectrum saw through the preposterous propaganda meant to dissuade Ohioans from enshrining the right of every individual “to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions” in the Ohio Constitution.

The decisive passage of Ohio’s Issue 1 amendment to preserve the right to make those decisions, including abortion, was essentially people telling politicians to butt out of personal medical choices they had no business meddling in.

Despite the deliberately loaded ballot wording, inserted by Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to subvert the referendum, voters channeled their Midwest sensibility of justice.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion, it was up to states to either restore that half-century right or repeal it.

Ohio voters chose a rational middle ground to restore a woman’s reproductive autonomy on private medical options that included, but were not limited to “contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.”

It was not unreasonable, a voting majority concluded on Nov. 7, 2023, that the state be barred from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, prohibiting, interfering with or discriminating against this constitutional right to reproductive freedom — unless it demonstrates “that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individual’s health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care.”

Put a pin in that caveat.

Voters agreed that abortion may be banned after fetal viability, but no procedure could be prohibited “if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

Contrary to claims made during the Issue 1 campaign, late-term abortions are extremely rare, representing less than 1 percent of all abortions in the U.S.

Despite the fear-mongering and falsehoods thrown at Ohio voters weighing the abortion rights amendment, despite the ton of money dumped to defeat the measure by the Catholic Church, the citizen’s initiative is now Article I, Section 22 of the Ohio Constitution.

The people spoke. Resoundingly.

Yet, ever since, a clear majority of the statewide constituency secured the constitutionally protected right to make reproductive decisions without government interference, the government has interfered.

Ohio Republicans signaled their intent from the beginning not to respect the will of voters on self-determination, but to override it.

The day after the amendment passed, more than two dozen GOP lawmakers in the legislature signed a statement to “do everything in [their] power” to maintain restrictive abortion laws on the books in Ohio.

A handful of anti-abortion zealots even tried to seize “exclusive authority over implementing” the constitutional amendment from the judiciary “to prevent mischief by pro-abortion courts.”

“This isn’t the end,” huffed then-Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman (and current Ohio House Speaker) who promised “a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace” the reproductive rights amendment.

Former Speaker Jason Stephens warned “the legislature has multiple paths that we will explore” to undercut the people’s wishes.

Ohio’s Republican attorney general is still soaking taxpayers with endless litigation to preserve parts of the state’s six-week abortion ban that multiple courts have ruled unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Ohio Statehouse Republicans can’t stop coming up with new legislation in 2025 to burden or impede individuals from accessing their constitutional right to abortion.

Ohio House Bill 347 would reinstate a 24-hour waiting period for abortions (along with state-mandated information and in-person visits) unrequired in other medical procedures.

Never mind that the existing law, blocked by an Ohio judge as unconstitutional, is still in court.

Two other anti-abortion bills in the Ohio House could potentially limit access to medication abortion (used safely in the U.S. for 20 years) and threaten non-abortion healthcare for low-income Ohioans by banning Medicaid reimbursements to clinics that provide abortions.

But the real topper by Republican lawmakers — less than two years after voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion — is Ohio House Bill 370, sweeping legislation that would impose a near-total ban on the procedure.

The proposal would redefine legal personhood to begin at conception, effectively granting fertilized eggs full legal protection under Ohio law.

After their setback in 2023, the Republican supermajority in the legislature has attempted to regulate, restrict or outlaw abortion as if nothing changed.

Pending bills that would undermine legalized abortion in the state are designed to overturn the popular vote of Ohioans.

GOP lawmakers in other red states are following similar playbooks with voters who approve progressive measures Republicans oppose.

The unaccountable autocrats, who erode the power of direct democracy, do not answer to the gerrymandered constituents they take for granted or feel any obligation to adhere to the letter of any law they dislike.

Ohio’s Republican overlords openly defy the state constitution on redistricting and abortion rights to get their way no matter what a majority of folks in their state wants.

Question is, will voters cede self-governance for team loyalty at the ballot box, or will they demand due respect from the elected representatives who work for them and loyalty to the rule of law over party?

Marilou Johanek is a veteran Ohio print and broadcast journalist who has covered state and national politics as a longtime newspaper editorial writer and columnist.

Trump admin explored how to trace abortion pills in wastewater: report

The Trump administration reportedly explored how to trace abortion pills in wastewater.

A team of scientists was directed by senior officials from the Environmental Protection Agency this summer to find out if the government could detect traces of the abortion drug mifepristone and if it could be contaminating water supplies, according to The New York Times.

The "highly unusual request" was directed by senior EPA officials following a letter from 25 Republican members of Congress who requested to find out if the abortion drug mifepristone could be contaminating the water supply or if resources could help to develop a testing method. The move was led by Republican Oklahoma lawmakers Sen. James Lankford and Rep. Josh Brecheen.

This is "a practice sought by some anti-abortion activists seeking to restrict the medication now used in over 50 percent of abortions," The Times reports.

New methods for testing could be potentially explored, two people familiar with the request told The Times under the condition of anonymity.

Access to and use of mifepristone, which can be used to terminate a pregnancy and also control high blood sugar among people with Cushing's syndrome, has become a focus for anti-abortion activists following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Some were apparently frustrated last week with the Food and Drug Administration's move to approve a generic version of the drug.

"The medication essentially prompts a miscarriage, and women sometimes pass fetal remains into the toilet. There is no evidence that abortion pills contaminate Americans’ water supply, and environmental experts have dismissed such claims," The Times reports.

'Concerning': Pope Leo XIV dishes rare criticism of Trump admin

Pope Leo XIV issued a rare comment, calling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's speech to military brass "concerning" and the Trump administration's “inhuman treatment” of immigrants and the death penalty hypocritical for people who call themselves "pro-life" for opposing abortion.

The American-born pope was responding to questions from reporters outside his Castel Gandolfo residence late Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.

Leo apparently shook his head in response to questions about Hegseth's speech, delivering an unusual statement, as he has mainly stayed out of politics and the news.

“This way of speaking is concerning, because it shows, every time, an increase of tension,” Leo told reporters in Italian. “This wording, like going from minister of defense to minister of war. Let’s hope it’s just a figure of speech. Of course, there you have a style of governance meaning to show strength, so as to pile up pressure. Let’s hope this works and that there isn’t war. One always needs to work toward peace.”

The pope also indicated his hope for peace and said the plan for Gaza is "realistic." He added that he is hopeful it will be "accepted."

Reporters also asked him about the Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich's decision to give Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) a lifetime achievement award for his dedication to immigration, which drew some backlash from other clergy leaders in the state who argued the senator's position on abortion should not be overlooked ahead of the honor.

Leo said he was “not terribly familiar with the particular case. He added that it is “very important to look at the overall work a senator has done during, if I am not mistaken, 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

I'm not a mother but I know Pam Bondi's view of motherhood is truly disturbing

I have yet to be a mother, but I froze my eggs a few years ago, and am thankful to have that choice to have a family of my own one day — a choice that was taken away from a woman in Georgia who was declared brain dead in February, yet kept on life support and forced to carry her fetus until she gave birth this June.

This harrowing situation unfolded because hospital officials feared they'd violate Georgia's law banning most abortions after fetal cardiac activity.

A few years ago, after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some anti-abortion advocates were taking issue with IVF procedures, citing that destroying unused embryos is equivalent to taking a life.

In May 2025, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs. Upon hearing the news, I immediately felt concern for the individuals who kept their eggs and embryos at this clinic. While no individuals or reproductive materials were harmed, the fear was palpable for me, having stored my own eggs in a Massachusetts clinic. This incident was deemed an act of terrorism, carried out by the perpetrator because of his anti-natalist views — his belief that it is wrong to have children.

What all these stories have in common is the insidious attempt to control women — control our reproductive health, our bodies, whether we live or die. They are only the most recent examples of how women's choices are being systematically stripped away.

Even the way those in power respond shows a disturbing and deeply ingrained narrow view of women and their choices. In response to the Palm Springs incident, Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a post on X, "Let me be clear: The Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable."

That sentence, though seemingly innocuous, reveals a troubling worldview. It implies that women are primarily valued as mothers, that our worth as women is intimately connected to our reproductive lives, and our health choices are directly tied to our ability to fulfill this singular role.

Yet there are myriad valid reasons why a woman may never have children: health issues, infertility, personal choice, not finding a suitable partner, or socioeconomic instability, to name a few.

Despite this, the current Trump administration and the conservative faction in our country seem fixated on justifying womanhood solely through the lens of motherhood. This reductive stance is evidenced by Vice President JD Vance's dismissive "childless cat lady" comment, where he questioned the stake of childless individuals in the nation's future, and further underscored by the Trump administration's proposals for “baby bonuses'” and tax-deferred investment accounts designed to incentivize childbirth.

Consider the ripple effects of this narrow perspective.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade has paved the way for states to make abortion illegal or incredibly restrictive, fundamentally stripping women of their agency and bodily autonomy. Once pregnant, in 41 states, a woman's body is now no longer entirely her own, but rather a vessel subject to state control.

The very act of bombing a fertility clinic, while deplorable, was deemed so primarily because a fertility clinic is associated with the creation of babies. The outrage stemmed from the perceived threat to potential motherhood, not necessarily the broader violation of individual liberty or the act of terrorism itself.

This singular focus extends to how women are perceived even in death. The Georgia case forces us to confront a horrifying reality: Even when a woman is brain dead, her bodily autonomy can be overridden in favor of a fetus. Her existence, in this context, is reduced to her reproductive capacity, even in her final moments.

This legal and ethical quagmire highlights how deeply ingrained the concept of women as mere incubators has become in some interpretations of the law.

Individuals should be valued for more than their potential or actual role as mothers.

I do not disagree that motherhood can be a profoundly important and vital aspect of life, and for many, it is. As someone who still hopes to be a mother, it is for me. Yet I do not know the future, and there is a real possibility that I may never have children. Therefore, to define a woman's entire identity and worth by her reproductive capacity is a dangerous reduction, not to mention emotionally charged for individuals such as myself.

Like any human, women are multifaceted beings with diverse aspirations, careers, contributions to society, and personal lives that extend far beyond the biological function of childbearing.

This societal obsession with motherhood as the pinnacle of female existence not only devalues women who choose not to have children or are unable to, but it also places undue pressure on those who do. It limits our collective imagination of what a woman can be and achieve.

We must challenge this pervasive narrative and advocate for a society where women's autonomy, choices, and identities are respected and celebrated in all their diverse forms, irrespective of their maternal status. It is time to assert that a woman's life, and her death, should be her own.

How do you know anti-abortion crusaders don't care about women? Listen to them

There once was a group in St. Louis called “Common Ground” that came together in the heat of the abortion wars to seek a modicum of civility between activists on both sides of the debate.

I don’t remember it lasting that long. But as one of the most outspoken pro-choice voices at the time – in the late 80s and 90s — I remember being impressed by the effort, and by some of the lofty ideals like these:

Let’s agree that unwanted pregnancies are a tragic thing. Let’s work together to reduce their occurrence. And maybe we need to figure out better access to sex education and birth control. Or better healthcare services and economic aid. And how about efforts to make adoption more viable?

What could be wrong with any of that? Nothing, really. Although the record will show that this passing flicker of consensus did not turn out to change the world.

A few decades later, the anti-abortion forces achieved their dream of obliterating a woman’s right to an abortion with the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision. Last month, SCOTUS allowed states to withhold Medicaid dollars from abortion providers — even if they’re for essential health services unrelated to abortion.

And now comes Donald Trump’s mega-bill taking the next step: blocking organizations that offer abortions from being able to accept any Medicaid funding for other reproductive health care services. That’s tied up in court for now, but with SCOTUS’s Republican majority of justices content to grovel before Trump, it’s close to a done deal.

All that made me think of Common Ground. And how heretical it would strike an anti-abortion activist today to ponder a perverse notion such as reducing unwanted pregnancies.

The venom seeped Monday from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. In response to news that Planned Parenthood might need to close up to 200 of its 600 health centers — which provide birth-control, cancer screenings and a full range of vital healthcare services to millions — Matthew Hennessey, the deputy editorial features editor, waxed eloquent:

“That is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.”

Hennessey, a man given to devoted paeans to his own college-age daughter, just isn’t about to demean himself with concern for others like her.

“The vital healthcare claim is hogwash, and everyone knows it. Killing babies is what Planned Parenthood does, to the tune of 400,000 a year. Abortion — not Pap tests or mental health — is the reason for its existence. Take that away and Planned Parenthood is nothing more than a glorified school nurse’s office.”

That's not just a lie. It’s a stunning slander from someone who absolutely knows better. It exposes how much the vitriol is about hatred and culture war. And how little about protecting life.

It begs a brief recitation of the facts.

Over the past year, Planned Parenthood health centers provided care to 2.34 million people across the U.S., as documented in the group's most recent annual report. This includes a full range of preventive and diagnostic services — the very kind that reduce the need for abortions in the first place.

Abortion care accounted for just 3 percent of all services provided at Planned Parenthood centers. Ninety-seven percent of what Planned Parenthood does has nothing to do with abortion at all.

Planned Parenthood provided more than 4.4 million birth control services in 2023-24 — a number that includes contraceptive prescriptions, emergency contraception, and long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs), such as IUDs and implants.

Without access to affordable contraception, unintended pregnancies spike — and with them, abortions. If you think it’s a great idea to slash funding for this, then spare us the rhetoric about life.

Planned Parenthood also delivered 4.2 million STI tests and treatments, including more than 740,000 HIV tests, helping stem the tide of infections that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

It conducted almost 500,000 cancer screenings, including Pap tests, breast exams, and HPV vaccinations. These are services that save lives, albeit for the living, a group of no consequence to those who call themselves pro-life.

That’s because — whatever animates their intensity — those who would destroy the nation’s leading women-healthcare provider have no claim whatsoever to any form of moral superiority. Their callous willingness to cause so much pain to so many others is quite a reveal.

I won’t endeavor to speculate as to what they really want. But this much is certain:

They’re not looking for common ground.

'Heartbreaking': Trump cuts shutter clinic — force students to travel 50 miles for care

With the closure of a nearby Planned Parenthood clinic at the beginning of May, students from Utah State University in Logan, Utah, face a “scary” situation in terms of accessing health care, prompting the creation of a carpool to drive patients on two-hour round trips to a clinic 50 miles away, community members told Raw Story.

Bridget Ackroyd, a USU senior, said Logan was “secluded” and “in its own little bubble,” with no public transit to reach Ogden, the closest Planned Parenthood clinic that remains open.

The loss of the Logan clinic hurts students who "might be in family situations where they are not able to charge something like an STI test to their health insurance, but they still want to make sure that they're healthy and safe," Ackroyd said.

The Logan clinic is one of two Planned Parenthood health centers in Utah — among at least a dozen across the U.S., according to Raw Story analysis — to shutter since President Donald Trump took office and froze federal funds for family planning services.

“It's just heartbreaking that now we know that those folks who relied on us either have to travel, defer care or figure out other ways to access the kind of health care they've depended on,” Shireen Ghorbani, interim president of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, told Raw Story.

“It's a big blow to these communities.”

A late-March freeze on Title X grants — federal funds which support family planning services from contraception to cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted infections — is just the start of funding challenges for Planned Parenthood health centers across the U.S., with more than 300 of its nearly 600 clinics across the country utilizing Title X funds.

Proposed cuts to Medicaid as part of a Republican megabill that advanced out of the House Budget Committee late Sunday but is still being negotiated between GOP factions would hit Planned Parenthood centers which also receive reimbursement from patients paying for services with Medicaid.

“The dismantling of health care in this country is happening before our very eyes,” Ghorbani said, “and now in this new budget … removing Title X, reductions in Medicaid, all of this is really spiraling us into a very, very bleak future when it comes to access to health care, especially for folks living on the margins in this country.”

Planned Parenthood has lost more than $20 million in Title X grants and $6 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program, said Laurel Sakai, national director of public policy and government affairs at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“We fully anticipate that we are kind of just the tip of the iceberg and that Title X funding may fully go away under this administration,” Ghorbani said.

‘Dismantling access’

The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah decided to shutter its Logan and St. George clinics on May 2, after the Trump administration froze $2.8 million in Title X funds.

In 2024, the clinic in Logan served 1,650 patients, and the St. George clinic served nearly 3,000, according to Ghorbani, who said 18 staff members lost their jobs.

Ackroyd, the USU senior, told Raw Story the closure of the Logan clinic was a “loss” for students who used a sliding-scale payment option instead of billing their parents’ insurance.

“If they're getting something like a birth control prescription or an STI exam, and they have parents that might have a very negative reaction if they see that charge, it puts into question the safety of those students that want to be able to access that health care without necessarily notifying parents,” Ackroyd said.

Alternative health care options in Logan are Intermountain Health and the campus health center but both rely on using insurance, Ackroyd said. Plus, she said, patients are likely to be stuck “waiting for sometimes hours and hours.”

Ackroyd said that at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Logan, she was able to get a next-day appointment for an intrauterine device.

“The Trump administration is dismantling access to … critical health care, by restricting these funds,” Ghorbani said. “It means that care goes away. People's jobs go away, and those decisions were made because of the actions of the Trump administration.”

‘Fundamental misunderstanding’

According to health policy nonprofit KFF, Planned Parenthood receives a third of its revenue from state and federal government funds.

But because of the Hyde Amendment, a federal measure passed in 1977, Planned Parenthood health centers do not receive any federal funds to provide abortions — which according to KFF make up just 4 percent of services performed at Planned Parenthood clinics.

In its newly released 2023-2024 annual report, Planned Parenthood confirmed that of more than 9.45 million services performed, 402,230 were abortions, while 34 percent of its revenue came from government health services reimbursements and grants.

Regardless, in late April, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that defunding “big abortion” was among Trump’s policy priorities.

Defund Planned Parenthood photo (Photo credit: Matt Laslo)www.rawstory.com

Sakai said attacks on Planned Parenthood are “not terribly surprising considering they went after us during the first Trump administration.”

But, “Planned Parenthood is not a line item in the budget,” Sakai said. “Patients choose to go to Planned Parenthood in order to get their health care that they need, and they're trying to take away that right and that choice of people.”

Cara Schumann, deputy director of federal strategies at abortion justice organization, All* Above All, said one in 11 women, particularly those on Medicaid, get reproductive health care from Planned Parenthood clinics.

That means cuts to Medicaid as well as federal grants like Title X and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program would be a “double whammy” for Planned Parenthood, she said.

“This is them attempting to defund Planned Parenthood clinics for reproductive health care they provide, so cancer screenings, STI screenings, basic contraceptives,” Schumann told Raw Story.

“What it seems is just like a fundamental misunderstanding of what Planned Parenthood does, what health care is, what services people need.”

Sakai said Planned Parenthood was gearing up to work with “champions in Congress” to “fight back against [the cuts] with any tools they have, to show that this isn't really about the budget or about any of their concerns they're pretending to raise about waste, fraud and abuse of the Medicaid program.”

“We know their goal is to shut down health centers, and we know that our clinics are doing everything possible to keep care in their communities.”

EXCLUSIVE: Breastfeeding mom of US citizen sues Kristi Noem after being grabbed by ICE

'I got it done': Trump brags about ending Roe v. Wade — and says GOP must 'win elections'

Donald Trump Saturday once again claimed credit for terminating Roe v. Wade while pushing away his party's strict anti-abortion stances and reminding fellow Republicans that the GOP must "win elections."

Trump, who appointed the Supreme Court justices who ultimately eliminated the women's health law once deemed the law of the land, took to his social media network, Truth Social, over the weekend to ride a fine line on abortion. The issue is thought by many analysts to be a weakness for the former president.

"With the long sought termination (52 years!), by everyone, including Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, and virtually all legal scholars and experts, and with the help of six very wise and brave Supreme Court Justices, I was successful in terminating Roe v. Wade - Something which few thought was possible to do!" Trump claimed, without providing evidence of the universal favorability of the action that made abortions nearly impossible to obtain for some.

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Trump continued, claiming that "everyone wanted it to go back to the States, and a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE, and not be in the Federal Government, where it never belonged."

"I GOT IT DONE, and now people are voting all over the USA," the ex-president said. "Some of the votes are more Liberal than would have been thought, but the Vote is the Vote!"

Trump went on to say, "Like Ronald Reagan before me, and 90% of the Republican Party, I BELIEVE IN EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER - On that you must follow your heart! But remember, however, Republicans have to WIN ELECTIONS, AND LEAD OUR COUNTRY BACK TO GREATNESS!"

He added, "Russia is today talking WAR with the USA, we are closer than ever before, and only I can solve this dangerous situation!"

C-SPAN caller cut off after anti-woman rant on Harris: 'How many abortions has she had?'

A C-SPAN host disconnected a caller on Sunday after a misogynist attack on Vice President Kamala Harris.

During C-SPAN's Washington Journal program, a woman named Sarah called in from Indiana to say she would not vote for Harris in the 2024 presidential race because she was a woman.

"I just want to say, not at this time should there be a woman in there," the caller explained. "We're affiliated with two wars right now, and our leaders in other countries are sitting back laughing at us. She's weak."

Sarah also claimed Harris had done a poor job as "border czar" despite never actually having that title.

"And another thing, she has no children," she added. "Any woman that's never had children can't be talking about kids and grandkids and all that stuff if you've never had any children."

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"And I'd like to know, how many abortions has she had?"

After that remark, the C-SPAN host quickly ended the call.

Watch the video below from C-SPAN or click the link.