HARTFORD, CT –　Senator Christine Cohen [D, Guilford] and a group of Democratic state senators said the Senate Democratic caucus will protect women's health care and provide state funding for Planned Parenthood in Connecticut in order to defend the organization from President Donald Trump's attack. The dozen Planned Parenthood clinics in Connecticut are now operating under a Trump-ordered gag rule that prohibits them from providing referrals for legal abortion services.

Health care advocates say President Trump's changes will lead to a decline in the quality of patient care and may force some clinics to close their doors. Federal Title X funding in Connecticut for Planned Parenthood amounts to about $2.1 million per year.

In a letter to Office of Policy and Management Commissioner Melissa McCaw, Senator Cohen and other Democratic senators asked to work with Commissioner McCaw to find this funding within the state's Fiscal Year 2020 budget. In addition, the Senate Democratic caucus plans to make the provision of funding to offset President Trump's attack on women's health a major priority in adjusting the Fiscal Year 2021 budget in the next session.

"I am committed to protecting the people affected by this reckless federal policy," said Sen. Cohen. "It is just another in a string of federal policies aimed at removing a woman's right to choose. The ramifications of defunding the Planned Parenthood of Southern New England will be catastrophic. This funding is imperative to ensuring the best care is available for our state's women and families."

For more than 40 years, federally funded Title X family planning clinics across America have ensured access to a broad range of family planning and related health services for millions of low-income or uninsured individuals, including breast and cervical cancer detection, screening and treatment; treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; HIV testing, and contraception.

But President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence recently pushed for a change to Title X Funding that prohibits Title X health care providers from counseling patients about abortion. The rule was announced in February, and it is currently being challenged in court in 20 states. A federal appeals court ruled last month that the Trump-Pence policy changes can take effect even as those lawsuits are pending.

In 2019, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England -- which operates 12 health clinics in Connecticut -- received $2.1 million in federal Title X funding (about 5% of its total budget).

In Connecticut in 2017, nearly 44,000 patients received services through Title X funding; about a third of those patients were women under the age of 25, about a third earned less than $12,000 a year, a third were Latino and a third African-American.

Reporters Note: Senator Christine Cohen represents District 12's communities of Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford.