ST. PAUL, MN – Today, Governor Mark Dayton
sent the attached letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, urging him to maintain the integrity of the Title X Program and not implement the agency’s proposed changes. Governor Dayton’s letter reminds Secretary Azar that federal Title X funds currently allow more than 53,000 Minnesotans access to expert, affordable reproductive health care services each year, including coverage for vital preventative health screenings.
“Today, I submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar expressing my deep concerns with plans to change the federal Title X Family Planning Program.
Birth control is fundamental health care and should not be controversial in 2018. More than 45 years ago, Congress created the federal Title X Family Planning Program with bipartisan support. For decades, low-income Minnesotans statewide have relied on this funding for critical health care service, including breast and cervical cancer screenings and birth control.
In Minnesota, Planned Parenthood has been the primary grantee for Title X since the program began, providing affordable care to 53,000 Minnesotans statewide using Title X funds. Now, the Trump Administration is proposing changes to the program that would wrongfully ban funding to any health care provider that provides or even refers patients for safe, legal abortion. These changes would effectively bar patients from receiving care from Planned Parenthood’s statewide network of Title X clinics, half of which are in rural or medically underserved areas of Minnesota.
I agree with the Minnesota Medical Association, the Minnesota Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other Minnesota health care providers that this “gag rule” interferes with the provider-patient relationship and is a violation of medical ethics.
Therefore, I stand with other Governors across the country in calling on Secretary Azar to maintain the integrity of the Title X program and stop these harmful changes that jeopardize critical health care for thousands of Minnesotans.”
To read Governor Dayton’s full letter to Secretary Azar,
CLICK HERE.
