@PPFA has been running a promotion on @Twitter ever since @HHSGov announced re-institution of an accounting rule to ensure that federally funded grant recipients use federal $$$ only for their intended purposes.

Here's a sample of their wares:

@PPFA goes on to describe the rule as unethical, and to claim that the rule prevent health care workers from communicating with their patients.

And, on a superficial examination, you might think that they are correct.

They aren't.

Let me 'splain:

1. The "Gag" Rule (as @PPFA calls it) only applies to grant recipients who have applied for and received federal grants for family planning services under Title X.

To be clear, there isn't a federal agent sneaking into every medical facility and putting gags on doctors or nurses.

Only organizations that apply for federal $$$ under the Title X family planning program are subject to the rule.

IOW, they volunteer to comply with the rules!

2. Title X has NEVER been a program intended to fund abortions, or to fund counseling about abortion services. Ever. Not for one moment in its long history.

There was a time when @PPFA knew the difference between #familyplanning services and #abortion. They even produced literature on the subject in the 1950s and early 1960s. Times have changed. Now @PPFA thinks aborting children is one way to space children.

3. Every federally funded program ... defense, healthcare, farming, etc., every single one of them, comes with a variety of strings. The Supreme Court refers to these strings as an exercise of "the power of the purse."

4. Like other federally funded programs, Title X's purposes are set out in law. Those purposes DO NOT INCLUDE abortion or abortion counseling.

You don't have to like that fact, but it is the fact. And that explains the next point:

5. The "gag" rule simply ensures that program integrity is maintained.

6. @PPFA can readily avoid the strictures of the "gag" rule in either of two ways, either by foregoing federal funding or by segregating its Title X programs and facilities from its abortion programs and facilities.

Guess what?

@PPFA knows exactly how to do this successfully.

Really? Yes, really because:

7. The so-called "gag rule" isn't NEW. When Republicans control the federal administration, the rule is in place. When Democrats are in charge, the rule is repealed.

And this has been going on since

8. The #SupremeCourt has reviewed the #gagrule and held that it is #constitutional.

That's right.

In #RustvSullivan, #SCOTUS rejected the very constitutional challenges being pursued by @PPFA.

Now, you'd think that some honesty would be a welcome change in the discussion of how federal $$$ is doled out and spent. But @PPFA keeps on lying and spinning.

Who can blame them?

It's not their money they're spending.

It's a difficult concept, isn't it?

Think of it this way:

Suppose you hire a builder to build an addition to your home. She takes your money, moves to Ecuador to write poetry. Oddly, you seem to think you've been swindled. She, on the other hand, feels empowered, fulfilled.

That's why "progress payment" structures are common in the construction trades. You get paid as you complete stages of construction.

It's why Congress passed the False Claims Act LONG AGO. It subjects those that swindle monies in federally funded activities to TRIPLE damages!!!

So, no, the "gag rule" hasn't unethically struck a blow against medical care and @PPFA's sky isn't falling. We're just making sure that those that take our $$$ use those $$$ for intended purposes!