Statement from National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Executive Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow on the Administration’s Title X Gag Rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2019
Contact: Jennifer Wang
(202) 812-9325 / jwang@napawf.org

Today, the Trump administration made public its final rule undermining Title X, the nation’s federal family planning program that provides crucial healthcare for low-income families. This “domestic gag rule” prohibits Title X clinics from referring people to abortion care and thus impedes our access to the full range of options for reproductive healthcare for pregnant people. This rule will severely impede clinics’ and community health centers’ ability to provide high quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health services to nearly four million people across the country.

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Executive Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow issued the following statement in response:

“To thwart our community’s ability to become fully informed and exercise full our agency over our lives is nothing short of wicked. This domestic gag rule will have a devastating impact on Asian American and Pacific Islander women. Thirteen percent of Title X patients have limited English proficiency, and Title X clinics sometimes serve as the only option for low-income AAPI women to obtain affordable, life-saving services as well as culturally and linguistically appropriate care.

“We grow ever more enraged at the administration’s repeated attacks on our communities’ access to health care, from the public charge rule to drastic cuts in community health center funding. Now, undermining Title X will put health care out of reach for immigrant women and low-income women who already face immense barriers to obtaining even the most basic of health services. AAPI women will fight this gag rule and any other attacks on our autonomy. “

###

The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only multi-issue, progressive, community organizing and policy advocacy organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and girls in the U.S. NAPAWF’s mission is to build collective power so that all AAPI women and girls can have full agency over our lives, our families, and our communities.