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Undated: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3)[4] and a member association of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). PPFA has its roots in Brooklyn, New York, where Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916. Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921,[5] which changed its name to Planned Parenthood in 1942.
Planned Parenthood consists of 159 medical and non-medical affiliates, which operate over 600 health clinics in the U.S.[2][3] It partners with organizations in 12 countries globally.[2][3] The organization directly provides a variety of reproductive health services and sexual education, contributes to research in reproductive technology and advocates for the protection and expansion of reproductive rights.[3]
PPFA is the largest single provider of reproductive health services, including abortion, in the U.S.[9] In their 2014 Annual Report, PPFA reported seeing over 2.5 million patients in over 4 million clinical visits and performing a total of nearly 9.5 million discrete services including 324,000 abortions.[12] Its combined annual revenue is US$1.3 billion, including approximately $530 million in government funding such as Medicaid reimbursements.[3][11] Throughout its history, PPFA and its member clinics have experienced support, controversy, protests,[13] and violent attacks.[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_Parenthood
-- 2017 --
March 31: The Next Battle in the War Over Planned Parenthood
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was poring over a spiral notebook in her bare-bones office here when she was asked about President Trump’s latest attempt to cut a deal on abortion.
Days earlier, the Trump White House had floated a trial balloon: If Planned Parenthood would quit performing abortions, it could keep roughly $550 million in annual federal funding.
Ms. Richards, 59, a savvy former political organizer (and a daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards, the tough-talking Texas Democrat) scowled, wondering aloud if the proposal was even serious. “That is just not going to happen,” she said flatly. “We would never abandon the women who count on us in exchange for cash.”
But while Ms. Richards stands at the forefront of efforts to protect access to abortion, another politically savvy woman, Marjorie Dannenfelser, who helped elect Mr. Trump and is a longtime ally of Vice President Mike Pence, is just as ardently on the other side, pushing hard to prevent Planned Parenthood from getting a single penny from taxpayers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/the-next-battle-in-the-war-over-planned-parenthood.html
April 13: Trump Signs Law Taking Aim at Planned Parenthood Funding
President Trump signed legislation on Thursday aimed at cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions, a move cheered by conservatives who have clamored to impose curbs on reproductive rights.
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The measure nullifies a rule completed in the last days of the Obama administration that effectively barred state and local governments from withholding federal funding for family planning services related to contraception, sexually transmitted infections, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening from qualified health providers — regardless of whether they also performed abortions. The new measure cleared Congress last month with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/us/politics/planned-parenthood-trump.html
July 26: Planned Parenthood Federation on Trump abortion order
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking federal funding for international organisations which perform or provide information on abortions in January 2017.
Figures suggest that the International Planned Parenthood Federation will lose about $100m (£76.6m, 85.88m euros) in US funding over the next three years.
The organisation’s director general, Tewodros Melesse, told BBC Hardtalk that: “What this administration is telling us, even if it is not with our money, if it is with someone else’s money, even if it is legal in the country, you cannot refer a client for abortion, you cannot advocate for abortion liberalisation, you cannot do any of that with someone else’s money.”
Derided as a "global gag rule" by its critics, the ban was first introduced by Ronald Regan in 1984, and has since been the subject of a political tug-of-war between Republican and Democrat presidents.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-40731931/planned-parenthood-federation-on-trump-abortion-order
December 26: Trump's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood met with roadblocks
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised to defund Planned Parenthood. That has yet to happen.
Trump joined other Republicans in opposition to federal funding for the health services provider on the grounds that Planned Parenthood helps some patients obtain abortions.
"I would defund it because of the abortion factor, which they say is 3 percent," Trump said on Feb. 25, 2016. "I don't know what percentage it is. They say it's 3 percent. But I would defund it, because I'm pro-life. But millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood."
Federal funding does not actually fund abortions. The Hyde Amendment excludes Planned Parenthood and others from using federal dollars to pay for most abortion services, except in instances of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in danger. Abortion opponents argue the government is tacitly supporting abortion by funding non-abortion services.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1357/defund-planned-parenthood/
-- 2018 --
January 19: President Trump Revokes Obama-Era Planned Parenthood Protections
U.S. health officials on Friday said they were revoking legal guidance issued by the Obama Administration that had sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services, such as Planned Parenthood.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials also said the department is issuing a new regulation aimed at protecting healthcare workers’ civil rights based on religious and conscience objections.
The regulation protects the rights of healthcare workers from providing abortion, euthanasia, and sterilization, the officials said during a media call with reporters.
On Thursday, HHS said it was creating a new division that would focus on conscience and religious objections, a move it said was necessary after years of the federal government forcing healthcare workers to provide such services.
http://time.com/5110480/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-protections/
May 18: The new Trump plan to defund Planned Parenthood, explained
New rules could leave low-income women without access to affordable birth control.
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17367964/trump-abortion-planned-parenthood-defund
August 30: Trump Administration Shortens Funding Period for Planned Parenthood, Other Family Planning Organizations
The Trump administration on Wednesday shortened funding periods for the Title X grants given to organizations that provide family planning services from three years to seven months, reported The Hill.
President Donald Trump has made clear his goal to defund Planned Parenthood, and if the changes to the grant funding-periods and requirements for receiving Title X funding are made permanent, it could harm the nonprofit. In July, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that Planned Parenthood would continue to receive Title X funds this year, much to anti-abortion groups’ dismay.
http://fortune.com/2018/08/30/trump-planned-parenthood/
September 7: Trump administration to consider South Carolina proposal to defund Planned Parenthood
The South Carolina proposal, called “Transitioning to Preconception Care,” would prohibit Medicaid beneficiaries from using their benefits at facilities that offer abortions. The administration will decide whether to approve the request following a public comment period that began Friday and ends Oct. 7.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/405561-trump-administration-to-consider-south-carolina-proposal-to-defund-planned
September 12: Planned Parenthood’s New President Sued Trump Last Year
Dr. Leana Wen will be replacing Cecile Richards as president of Planned Parenthood
As Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen was outraged last summer when she found out that President Trump planned to cut a grant for teen pregnancy prevention programs in a handful of cities, including hers. “This grant allowed us to have comprehensive reproductive health education in middle schools and high schools throughout our city,” she told CNN at the time. “We see it as being irresponsible to cut this program.” So she got the city to sue the administration, and they won, keeping the programs in place.
Now, according to an announcement on Twitter, Dr. Wen is taking that commitment to healthcare to Planned Parenthood as its new president.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/planned-parenthood-new-president-723302/
December 2: GOP lawmakers’ reality: They won’t cut Planned Parenthood
That's infuriated anti-abortion groups, who plan to take their fight to state legislatures and the courts.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/02/gop-congress-planned-parenthood-1036942
December 12: Planned Parenthood argues in court that family planning faces harm under Trump
Planned Parenthood argued in federal court Wednesday that it has the right to challenge guidelines from the Trump administration threatening to cut them off from receiving grants on avoiding unplanned pregnancies.
Planned Parenthood was in court to appeal a district court decision in July that allowed the administration's guidelines about the program, called Title X, to stand.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/planned-parenthood-argues-in-court-that-family-planning-faces-harm-under-trump
December 10: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take a case with big potential implications for women's health care and Planned Parenthood related to whether states can block people from using Medicaid for health care services at Planned Parenthood and similar organizations.
The result is that people can continue to use Medicaid money for pregnancy-related Planned Parenthood services. Now, this is not for abortion-related services. Federal law prohibits people from using Medicaid money for abortion.
But the court not taking up this case means that most states cannot, for now, effectively prohibit people from using Medicaid funds for other Planned Parenthood services, like screenings, ultrasounds and counseling.
This case specifically was about whether Planned Parenthood (and similar organizations and individuals using those services) have a right to sue to challenge the decision not to fund Planned Parenthood.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/10/675260800/supreme-court-declines-key-planned-parenthood-case
December 16: Anti-abortion family planning clinics are increasingly vying for the same federal funds that go to Planned Parenthood, signaling a major change in federal policy being pushed by the Trump administration.
This new front in the abortion wars comes as conservatives have largely given up on completely defunding Planned Parenthood, so they’re trying to use the rules to their advantage, pushing for faith-driven women’s clinics to apply for those same federal funds to push an anti-abortion agenda.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/16/abortion-pregnancy-centers-planned-parenthood-1007765
December 18: Dr. Leana Wen has only been at the helm of Planned Parenthood for a month, but she says the politically-driven attempts to try and take away access to their health care services are already a constant.
“We feel repeated attacks from the Trump administration against reproductive health and women’s health almost on a daily basis,” Wen, 35, tells PEOPLE. “We are very concerned about the Trump administration’s efforts to attack science, to attack medicine, to attack the fundamental right to health care.”
From politicians in Louisiana and Kansas attempting to stop patients on Medicaid from going to Planned Parenthood, to the Trump administration finalizing a rule that would allow employers to deny women birth control coverage, it’s been a busy few months.
“I mean, it’s 2018, and we’re still arguing over whether women should have access to birth control,” Wen says. “There are multiple other efforts — I could go on and on. We at Planned Parenthood won’t stand for that.”
https://people.com/health/planned-parenthood-president-repeated-attacks-trump-administration/
-- 2019 --
January 14: A federal judge in Pennsylvania has blocked the Trump administration from implementing a rule allowing employers to decline to offer contraceptive coverage on moral or religious grounds.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia imposed a nationwide injunction Monday which has wider effect than a similar ruling issued Sunday by a federal judge in California.
The policy was set to go into effect nationwide Monday. But U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. blocked the Trump administration's bid to greatly expand the number of employers that could claim the exemption from the health care law.
He put the rule on hold for 13 states and the District of Columbia, which challenged the rule in court.
In her ruling, Judge Beetlestone said states would be harmed by the Trump administration's policy because women who lost contraceptive coverage would seek state-funded services.
The Affordable Care Act requires most companies to offer employees health insurance that covers FDA-approved birth control at no cost. But Trump has long promised employers that he would "vigorously" protect their rights to religious freedom. So the Trump administration developed rules to make it easier for more employers to opt out of the ACA requirement.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/685037779/judge-blocks-trump-birth-control-policy-in-13-states-and-d-c
-- 2020 --
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