What is President Donald J. Trump doing now?
There have been recent reports that Trump plans to cut a third of the federal healthcare budget, eliminate dozens of programs, and significantly reduce funding for healthcare agencies. It also eliminates the CDC’s global health center and programs focused on chronic disease prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Planned Parenthood is a free or discounted family planning health care provider that, for half a century, has seen thousands of Utahns turn to it every year for care, such as birth control checkups or sexually transmitted disease testing.
Planned Parenthood was forced to raise fees due to a Trump administration directive freezing federal funds that help pay for those services, and it will have to close a quarter of its clinics in the state. The clinics expected to close in Utah are the association’s northernmost and southernmost locations, both within walking distance of the university’s campus, the Logan clinic near Utah State University, and the St. George facility in the vicinity of Utah Tech University. These two locations together serve thousands of patients each year. The most common services sought there are birth control issues and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, among others. This could have a major impact.
Drugs and services that could be affected include statins to prevent heart disease, lung cancer screenings, HIV prevention drugs, and drugs to reduce the risk of breast cancer for women at high risk. This could have huge implications for the healthcare industry as a whole and its poor patients.
Sarah Stoesz, the interim CEO for Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, stated, “When the Title X news came to us, we were unhappy, shocked in a way, but not surprised. ” Sarah Stoesz also notes, “We’ve been giving it a lot of thought for some time and have been creating contingency plans. We didn’t know how deep the cut would be; we didn’t know how permanent it might be.” Furthermore, she states, “We have been around for so long in Utah and this country.” Later, she says, “We have served women who are now in their 60’s and 70’s, and we have served their daughters, and we are serving their granddaughters.”
As a result, Donald Trump is reducing access to healthcare services that provide necessary care and support, leaving many communities at risk and without the help they need.
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