A legal and political showdown is intensifying over a proposed rule change to block federal grant funding to health centers that perform abortions or make abortion referrals — one Planned Parenthood supporters say will cripple women’s health and physicians’ freedom if successful.

Lucas County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution this week opposing the proposal. Rob Salem, a Toledo attorney and board member of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, introduced the resolution, saying the measure “essentially imposes a gag rule on health care providers” by preventing them from counseling patients about where to obtain a legal abortion.

“It is unbelievable to me that there would be a proposed rule that would prohibit doctors from counseling women,” said Commissioner Carol Contrada, calling it an attack on poor people who “don’t have other options to receive counseling and to receive information, whatever their choice may be.”

She encouraged her colleagues to send the resolution to Ohio’s representatives in Congress and federal health officials. The resolution is one of several by legislative bodies in Ohio recently, including Columbus City Council, which approved a similar resolution opposing the rule this week. Toledo City Council is expected to do so later this month. 

The Trump Administration in May proposed the change to block Title X funding to organizations that perform abortions or refer patients to abortion services. It would not decrease the amount spent on Title X family planning grants, but keep them from organizations such as Planned Parenthood.

Such grants allow health centers to provide a variety of services, such as cancer screenings, contraception, and exams on a sliding fee scale based on income. About $8.7 million in Title X funds were awarded to 87 sites across Ohio, according to the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.

Planned Parenthood is the only Title X provider in Lucas County, said Joanna Saul, vice president of government affairs and public advocacy for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. 

About 5,000 patients used Planned Parenthood in Toledo for family planning services last year, including for 2,048 pregnancy tests, 1,405 HIV tests, 589 cancer screenings, and 11,310 sexually transmitted infection tests and treatment, according to the organization. Toledo’s Planned Parenthood does not perform abortions but does refer to other providers that do. 

“In terms of the direct cost to Toledo, I think the public health consequences are pretty clear here,” Ms. Saul said. “There are a number of women and men in the Toledo area who depend on receiving low-cost or free reproductive services that they will no longer be able to receive ... life-saving cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, [and] contraception.”

Jamieson Weaver, spokesman for Ohio Right to Life, called the proposed rule change a matter of conscience. 

“The Protect Life Rule won’t change the amount of Title X funding flowing into Ohio,” she said in a statement. “It simply ensures that the conscience rights of Ohio’s taxpayers are preserved. Ohioans shouldn’t be forced to pay into the abortion industry’s slush fund, covering their staff’s salaries, rent, and utilities. This rule allows true family-planning organizations to get the funding they so richly deserve. The taking of innocent human life is not family planning, and should never be propped up by Title X.”

It's not an apples to apples comparison to shift funding elsewhere, Ms. Saul said, when other some programs awarded funding don't focus on reproductive health or don't offer certain types of birth control and services that Planned Parenthood does.

Opposition from Lucas County officials comes as other developments pick up speed. The 60-day public comment period for the rule change closes at the end of July while a  federal judge ruled this week against Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, and two other Planned Parenthood local chapters, which jointly sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the proposed changes. 

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.

First Published July 18, 2018, 12:00 p.m.