Latest news with #AlexisMcGillJohnson
Epoch Times
14-05-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
House Republicans Propose Defunding Planned Parenthood, Other Abortion Providers in Megabill
House Republicans are proposing a cut to Medicaid reimbursements for organizations like Planned Parenthood as part of their sweeping policy bill to implement President Donald Trump's agenda. Within the Energy and Commerce Committee's 160-page budget The rule applies to any organization that receives more than a million dollars in annual federal funding, including Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. It blocks funding for such organizations for 10 years. Although the federal government is already legally prohibited from funding abortion under the According to a recent Planned Parenthood said the proposal puts health objectives at risk. Related Stories 4/2/2025 5/13/2025 'With this proposal, abortion opponents in Congress have declared they want working families to take on skyrocketing health care costs so they can give billionaires a tax break,' Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a McGill also said defunding Planned Parenthood would result collateral damage: an increase in undetected cancers, higher sexual infection rates, and increased birth control costs. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also 'Republicans tried and failed to defund Planned Parenthood in their last reconciliation bill and you can be sure that Democrats will be fighting with everything we've got to stop Republicans from ripping away access to care through Planned Parenthood this time around,' she said in a statement on May 12. Earlier this year, Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) rebutted the claim that the issue at heart is women's 'comprehensive health care services.' She noted that 'in 2020, [Planned Parenthood] performed 383,460 abortions while the amount of prenatal services that they provided dropped from 40,000 to 9,000 in just 10 years.' 'It is clear that Planned Parenthood is not in the business of supporting women but instead providing abortions on demand,' she said in a Her statement came as part of her reintroduction of the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, and the Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act. The bills would strip Planned Parenthood of current funding, and would prevent it and all other organizations from accessing federal funds, unless they promise not to perform abortions. Planned Parenthood is already under pressure, as it was hit by That program provides funding for 'natural family planning methods, infertility services, and services for adolescents, highly effective contraceptive methods, [and] breast and cervical cancer screening and prevention,' among other services. The administration froze some of the organization's funding based on allegations that Planned Parenthood and other groups had violated civil rights laws, and some of Trump's executive orders.
Washington Post
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Judy Blume wrote honestly about teen sex. At 50, ‘Forever' endures.
Alexis McGill Johnson doesn't know if she would have been allowed to read Judy Blume's 'Forever' in junior high school, but at the time, she wasn't taking any chances. In the early 1980s, McGill Johnson discovered her older sister's copy of the book in the playroom of her childhood home in Morristown, New Jersey. To hide it, she nestled Blume's controversial novel — about first love and sex — inside another, more family-friendly, paperback.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump administration pauses some family planning grants as it investigates compliance with laws
The federal government has paused $27.5 million for organizations that provide family planning, contraception, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection services as it investigates whether they're complying with the law. The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association says 16 organizations received notice Monday that funding is on hold. At least 11 Planned Parenthood Federation of America regional affiliates and all recipients of federal family planning, or Title X, grants in seven states, had funding withheld. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declined to say which laws or executive orders the groups are being investigated for violating, though NFPFHA said some of the letters cited civil rights laws. Trump has issued executive orders targeting programs that consider race in any way, some of which have been put on hold by judges. Health and Human Services, which is in the midst of deep layoffs, also said that 'no final decisions on any spending changes for Planned Parenthood have been made.' Republicans have long railed against the millions of dollars that flow every year to Planned Parenthood and its clinics, which offer abortions but also birth control, cancer and disease screenings, among other things. Federal law prohibits taxpayer dollars from paying for most abortions. Providers said the impact on health care will especially hit lower-income people. 'We know what happens when health care providers cannot use Title X funding,' Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. 'People across the country suffer, cancers go undetected, access to birth control is severely reduced, and the nation's STI crisis worsens.' The reproductive health association, whose members include most Title X grant recipients, said that about one-fourth of them received the letter, including all the recipients in California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Utah. Mississippi law bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy. George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning, which provides abortion services, said that if necessary his organization would go to court to seek the funds. 'The Administration's dangerous decision to withhold Maine Family Planning's Title X funds jeopardizes access to critical health care services for thousands of Mainers. Any delay in disbursement of federal grants will have a detrimental effect on our state family planning network and the patients we serve," Hill said. The Missouri Family Health Council, which pays for programs throughout Missouri and part of Oklahoma, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, also had its funding blocked. Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which includes Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, said regional clinics remain committed to providing health care despite the funding uncertainty. 'They want to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers to appease their anti-abortion backers, and they're willing to take away birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment to get their way,' Great Plains Planned Parenthood President and CEO Emily Wales said in a statement. 'If blocking health care for low-income patients is what the Trump administration means by 'making America great again,' then we want no part of it.' ___ Associated Press reporters Summer Ballentine and Amanda Seitz contributed to this article.
Associated Press
01-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Trump administration pauses some family planning grants as it investigates compliance with laws
The federal government has paused $27.5 million for organizations that provide family planning, contraception, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection services as it investigates whether they're complying with the law. The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association says 16 organizations received notice Monday that funding is on hold. At least 11 Planned Parenthood Federation of America regional affiliates and all recipients of federal family planning, or Title X, grants in seven states, had funding withheld. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declined to say which laws or executive orders the groups are being investigated for violating, though NFPFHA said some of the letters cited civil rights laws. Trump has issued executive orders targeting programs that consider race in any way, some of which have been put on hold by judges. Health and Human Services, which is in the midst of deep layoffs, also said that 'no final decisions on any spending changes for Planned Parenthood have been made.' Republicans have long railed against the millions of dollars that flow every year to Planned Parenthood and its clinics, which offer abortions but also birth control, cancer and disease screenings, among other things. Federal law prohibits taxpayer dollars from paying for most abortions. Providers said the impact on health care will especially hit lower-income people. 'We know what happens when health care providers cannot use Title X funding,' Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. 'People across the country suffer, cancers go undetected, access to birth control is severely reduced, and the nation's STI crisis worsens.' The reproductive health association, whose members include most Title X grant recipients, said that about one-fourth of them received the letter, including all the recipients in California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Utah. Mississippi law bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy. George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning, which provides abortion services, said that if necessary his organization would go to court to seek the funds. 'The Administration's dangerous decision to withhold Maine Family Planning's Title X funds jeopardizes access to critical health care services for thousands of Mainers. Any delay in disbursement of federal grants will have a detrimental effect on our state family planning network and the patients we serve,' Hill said. The Missouri Family Health Council, which pays for programs throughout Missouri and part of Oklahoma, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, also had its funding blocked. Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which includes Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, said regional clinics remain committed to providing health care despite the funding uncertainty. 'They want to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers to appease their anti-abortion backers, and they're willing to take away birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment to get their way,' Great Plains Planned Parenthood President and CEO Emily Wales said in a statement. 'If blocking health care for low-income patients is what the Trump administration means by 'making America great again,' then we want no part of it.' ___
