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Trumpcare's Promise to Defund Planned Parenthood Will Devastate Poor Communities

According to the US Congressional Budget Office score, the nonprofit organization would lose its federal funding for a one-year period after the enactment of Trumpcare. Planned Parenthood responded today to explain what that means for the communities...

Below is what happened on Trump's 36th day in office. You can find out what damage was done every other day so far on the Saddest Calendar on the Internet.

Buried in a slew of frightening details about the impact of Trumpcare on Americans—including 14 million people losing insurance in the first year alone—a section of the recently released US Congressional Budget Office score outlines how Trumpcare would inconspicuously dismantle Planned Parenthood. According to the nonpartisan report, the nonprofit organization would lose its federal funding for a one-year period after enactment.

As outlined by the CBO, "legislation would prevent federal funds from being made available to an entity (including its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, and clinics) if it is: A nonprofit organization…and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of the code; an essential community provider that is primarily engaged in providing family planning and reproductive health services and related medical care; an entity that provides abortions—except in instances in which the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest or the woman's life is in danger; or an entity that had expenditures under the Medicaid program that exceeded $350 million in fiscal year 2014."

Therefore, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, as well as its affiliates and clinics, would be affected. While the GOP is justifying this in economic terms (promising to reduce direct spending while denying men and women of crucial health care), the legislation would hit one group the hardest: "the people…[who] reside in areas without other health care clinics or medical practitioners who serve low-income populations." According to the CBO, about 15 percent of those people would lose access to this critical care.

In response, Planned Parenthood details just how detrimental this would be: 54 percent of their clinics "are in health professional shortage areas, rural or medically underserved areas." The organization also claims that despite the GOP health care plan's justification that this provision affects a "class of providers," not just Planned Parenthood, the proposed legislation violates the Byrd Rule because it essentially singles out Planned Parenthood. (The Byrd Rule permits senators to block legislation if they believe that it could increase the federal deficit beyond a 10-year term or if the legislation is considered extraneous matter).

"It would appear that this provision violates the Byrd Rule, since the Byrd Rule stipulates that if a provision's budgetary impact is 'merely incidental' to the non-budgetary components of the provision, it should not qualify for reconciliation in the United States Senate," the report reads.