Trenton – The Senate today approved legislation sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Senator Troy Singleton that would provide $9.5 million for family planning services. The Senators acted in response to Planned Parenthood’s withdrawal from Title X because of the limitations imposed by the Trump Administration’s “gag rule.”
The bill, S-4103, would allocate the supplemental appropriation for distribution by the New Jersey Department of Health to providers who lost funding due to the revised federal regulations.
“The Title X ‘gag rule’ has forced family planning service providers, like Planned Parenthood, to withdraw from the federal program in order to protect the quality of patient care it delivers to millions of women and low-income families across the state and the nation,” said Senate President Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “Medical professionals should be free to inform their patients with the best advice for their care, including where they should seek additional services.”
“The women of New Jersey deserve the best health care that Planned Parenthood and other clinics can provide,” said Senator Weinberg (D-Bergen). “The Trump Administration wants to employ a ‘gag rule’ to impose restrictions that are harmful to women, especially low-income patients who are most in need of an expansion of medical services. We stand with Planned Parenthood and other family planning services that have provided quality care in New Jersey for decades.”
“Undoubtedly, the gag rule will disproportionately affect women of color and those with lower incomes,” said Senator Singleton (D-Burlington). “The proposed restrictions on the Title X program will only increase the existing disparity in health outcomes between minority and non-minority women even further. For these reasons, the state must step up and protect the reproductive rights and health care freedoms for all women.”
Planned Parenthood is New Jersey’s largest provider of women’s health services in the state.
The bill was approved with a vote of 24-14.
