OCEAN TOWNSHIP - Senator Vin Gopal today called for New Jersey to join Planned Parenthood in support of Title X healthcare services and to close the funding gap in women’s healthcare left by new federal rules:

“Planned Parenthood does outstanding work to ensure that women across New Jersey can receive the highest quality of care, and I’m proud to see them standing with their values,” said Gopal (D-Long Branch). "Our Legislature must immediately take action to ensure that Planned Parenthood and women’s health clinics across our state are able to continue supplying the reproductive healthcare services that are so essential to our communities.”

Title X funding is provided under a federal program for affordable birth control and reproductive health care. New Jersey currently receives $8.3 million in federal funding for Title X services, but a new federal rule would require women’s health clinics such as Planned Parenthood to sacrifice that funding unless they complied with a so-called “gag rule.” Under the gag rule, it would be illegal for health care providers in the Title X program to tell patients how or where to access an abortion. New Jersey’s two Planned Parenthood affiliates formally withdrew from the federal program in order to preserve their ability to provide affordable and accessible reproductive health care services.