Here’s How You Can Join the Fight Against Trump’s Abortion Gag Rule

Activists are responding to Trump’s abortion gag rule in full force.

A quick refresher: The abortion gag rule — also known as the “Protect Life Rule” — would block federal Title X funding from any healthcare center that provides or refers patients for abortion care. By attempting to bar providers from sharing medically accurate information about abortion, Trump’s proposal is a direct attack on people’s reproductive choices, especially low-income and uninsured patients who rely on providers like Planned Parenthood and local healthcare centers for affordable and essential healthcare.

Title X grants support family planning services like contraception, testing, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, cancer screenings, and general reproductive health exams. If this rule goes into effect, as many as four million people will not have access to reproductive healthcare services. The Trump administration is threatening patients’ access to healthcare and is opening medical providers up to criminal prosecution for exercising their right to free speech when they share medically accurate information with their patients.

The people aren’t having it. Across the country, ordinary people are marching, petitioning, and flooding their representatives with calls to oppose the rule. They’ve gotten some of their representatives to step up to the plate. Governors of the Democratic Governors Association penned a joint letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, making it clear that the domestic abortion gag rule is a violation of our rights to healthcare access. 

Want to join the fight? Planned Parenthood is requesting public comments opposing the abortion gag rule. By submitting an official comment to the Department of Health and Human Services, you can add your voice to the chorus of people resisting reproductive oppression.

Image via Huffington Post.