EXCERPT: “The Mahube-Otwa Community Action Partnership is a nonprofit organization that operates a small network of family planning clinics serving low-income patients in rural Minnesota. Like so many other clinics across the country right now, it withdrew from the Title X family planning program after the Trump administration’s gag rule went into effect, prohibiting providers like Mahube-Otwa from receiving federal funds if they counseled or referred patients for abortion services. The decision to opt out of the program was painful but straightforward enough, executive director Liz Kuoppala told Jezebel, since staying in the program would have meant rejecting the patient model that anchors the work they do in their communities: ‘Being client–focused means providing the very best service we can to our clients and not having a politician dictate what sort of services we can provide,’ she explained. ‘So being limited just in order to get a grant is just contrary to who we are and how we operate.'” FULL STORY: http://bit.ly/2LTgF6c
