Governor Mills has responded to the Trump administration’s final draft of a “domestic gag” – that targets the funding for Planned Parenthood and could direct funds to religious and anti-abortion organizations according to an article in ‘THE NEW YORK TIMES.” If approved this step could cost Planned Parenthood millions of dollars.

The domestic gag rule limits patients access to medically accurate family planning information by banning abortion referrals and forces abortion providers to physically and financially separation abortion services from other services in order to receive Title X funding. Experts believe that this is one step in Trump’s campaign promise to “defund Planned Parenthood.”

“Every women should be able to access reproductive health care when and where she needs it,. The Trump Administration’s gag rule is backward and a policy that will silence health care providers, withhold vital medical information from patients and prevent women from getting the basic health care they need,” said Governor Mills in a press release issued today.

“I will work with Attorney General Frey, Department of H&H Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambers and the Legislation to determine what we can do in the state to protect health care for Maine women,” she concluded.

The “gag rule” makes it illegal for health care providers in the Title X program that refers patients for an abortion. The gag rule includes physical separation requirements designed to deter patients from visiting organization, like Planned Parenthood, for care. Requirements range from the construction of separate entrances and exists to entirely new health centers and the hiring of separate doctors and staff. These high cost “physical separation” requirements could force organizations like Planned Parenthood into withdrawing from the Title X program all together. Approximately $ 2 million in funds are now in jeopardy under the gag rule.