NEW YORK (AP) — Planned Parenthood said Monday it’s pulling out of the federal family planning program rather than abide by a new Trump administration rule prohibiting clinics from referring women for abortions.

Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s acting president and CEO, said the organization’s nationwide network of health centers would remain open and strive to make up for the loss of federal money. But she predicted that many low-income women who rely on Planned Parenthood services would “delay or go without” care.

“We will not be bullied into withholding abortion information from our patients,” said McGill Johnson. “Our patients deserve to make their own health care decisions, not to be forced to have Donald Trump or Mike Pence make those decisions for them.”

Enforcement of the new Title X rule marks a major victory for a key part of President Donald Trump’s political base — religious conservatives opposed to abortion. They have been campaigning relentlessly to “defund Planned Parenthood” because — among its varied services — it is the largest abortion provider in the United States, and they viewed the Title X grants as an indirect subsidy.

About 4 million women are served nationwide under the Title X program, which distributes $260 million in family planning grants to clinics. Planned Parenthood says it has served about 40% of patients, many of them African American and Hispanic. Family planning funds cannot be used to pay for abortions.

In a statement, the federal Department of Health and Human Services said Planned Parenthood knew months ago about the new restrictions and suggested that the group could have chosen at that point to exit the program.

“Some grantees are now blaming the government for their own actions — having chosen to accept the grant while failing to comply with the regulations that accompany it — and they are abandoning their obligations to serve patients under the program,” the department said.

It said it would strive to make sure patients are served.

Planned Parenthood was not the only organization dropping out. Maine Family Planning, which is unaffiliated with Planned Parenthood, also released its letter of withdrawal Monday. The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, an umbrella group for family planning clinics, is suing to overturn the regulations.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco is weighing a lawsuit to overturn the rules, but so far the court has allowed the administration to go ahead with enforcement. Oral arguments are scheduled the week of Sept. 23. Several states and the American Medical Association have joined the suit as plaintiffs.

Abortion rights activists are also pressing Congress to overturn the rule, though it seems unlikely that the Republican-controlled Senate would take that step.

Monday was the deadline set by the government for program participants to submit statements that they intended to comply with the new rules, along with a plan. Enforcement will start Sept. 18.

In addition to the ban on abortion referrals by clinics, the rule’s requirements include financial separation from facilities that provide abortions, designating abortion counseling as optional instead of standard practice, and limiting which staff members can discuss abortion with patients. Clinics would have until next March to separate their office space and examination rooms from the physical facilities of providers that offer abortions.

The Trump administration has also made it possible for faith-based organizations opposed to abortion to receive Title X grants.

Among the recipients of grants this year was Obria Medical Clinics, which runs a network of facilities in California. It promotes abstinence-based sex education and “natural family planning,” and does not prescribe birth control.

The impact of Planned Parenthood’s withdrawal will vary from state to state. Some states, including Illinois, have said they would step in to replace lost federal funding.

“We will make sure that access to these services remains available, because in Illinois we trust women,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who joined Planned Parenthood’s news conference on Monday. He said Planned Parenthood serves about 70,000 people in Illinois.

Elsewhere, the impact could be substantial. In Utah, Planned Parenthood is the only Title X grantee; in Minnesota, it serves 90% of patients.

“It will simply be impossible for other health centers to fill the gap,” said McGill Johnson. “Wait times for appointments will skyrocket.”

HHS said in its statement that it’s grateful for the many grant recipients that are remaining with the program. State and local health departments account for a significant share of service providers. “We will work to ensure all patients continue to be served,” the agency said.

Planned Parenthood has called the ban on abortion referrals a “gag rule,” while the administration insists that’s not the case.

Maine Family Planning CEO George Hill said in a letter to HHS that his organization is withdrawing “more in sorrow than in anger” after 47 years of participating in the program.

He said the Trump administration regulation “would fundamentally compromise the relationship our patients have with us as trusted providers of this most personal and private health care. It is simply wrong to deny patients accurate information about and access to abortion care.”

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By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The president of the company that formerly ran a literacy program for Kansas’ public elementary schools alleged Monday that the state canceled the multimillion-dollar grant in “retaliation” for the firm’s opposition to major changes state officials were seeking.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families ended the grant for Washington-based Hysell & Wagner six weeks after its president, Andrew Hysell, and department secretary, Laura Howard, signed a yearlong extension in late June imposing new conditions. Hysell told reporters that two days after he and Howard signed the extension, the department began seeking another change, in how the company distributed grant dollars to public schools.

The department announced the end of the grant Friday, saying it had found problems that included excessive payments for expenses that included travel by Hysell and another top executive for the Reading Roadmap program.

The department also released the draft of an internal audit completed in 2017 that hadn’t previously been made public, which said $2.3 million in grant funds were “incorrectly claimed and paid” to the company in 2014 and 2015. Hysell strongly disputed those claims Monday or suggestions that administrative expenses were improper.

The department cited the draft audit’s conclusions in announcing its decision to end the grant, and Hysell on Monday called it “grossly inaccurate.” He said releasing details from the draft audit violates the company’s rights to due legal process and accused the department of “a dangerous abuse of governmental authority.” The result was “traumatic” for Reading Roadmap staff, he said.

“There were tears — disbelief,” he said. “I can’t just let this sit out there.”

The department launched the Reading Roadmap initiative during Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, using funds designated for cash assistance to low-income families. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly took office in January, having been a state senator and vocal critic of Brownback’s social services policies.

Spokesman Mike Deines said the department ended the grant because it “needs to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.” The grant once was worth more than $9 million a year, though the latest extension called for the state to spend $7.8 million.

Howard and Hysell signed the one-year extension of the grant on June 28, just three days before the start of the state’s current budget year.

Hysell said that on June 30, the department began pushing the company to change its system for distributing dollars to school districts, in which they received most of their money as two big advances, rather than after-the-fact reimbursements. Hysell said small districts might face problems paying staff costs otherwise.

He released a memo dated Aug. 4, which he said went to department officials, saying the proposed change would “put schools at risk” and create “significant problems.”

But Deines said the department’s decision wasn’t based only on the company’s resistance to changing how grant funds were distributed.

“It was an accumulation of issues,” he said in an email.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has ruled that it is “absurd” for a fired Kansas prison dental instructor to attempt to have charges accusing him of nonconsensual touching of female inmates dismissed on the grounds that the state law barring such conduct only mentions consensual sex acts.

Shawnee County District Judge Cheryl Rios rejected the Tomas Co’s argument Friday and ordered him to stand trial on Jan. 27 on five charges of unlawful sexual relations with an inmate.

Co’s attorney, Chris Joseph, said state law is ambiguous and Co shouldn’t be held accountable for the Legislature’s bad policy. But Rios said that, “The absurd result would be for an adult who doesn’t consent and is incarcerated, a corrections officer or parole officer or anyone else could do whatever they want.”

SEDGWICK COUNTY —Two suspected of drunken driving hit patrol cars in separate incidents during the weekend.

The first crash occurred early Saturday when a man identified as 58-year-old Janes Johnson driving the wrong way on a city street hit a patrol car, according to officer Charley Davidson.  The officer was able to avoid a head-on collision and was treated for minor injuries.

Police arrested Johnson on requested charges, including aggravated battery and his third DUI.

On Saturday night, a driver hit a patrol car and another vehicle while police were working an accident. Thirty-seven-year-old Lesster Raudales-Varela was stopped a short time later and arrested on possible DUI and careless driving charges.

No one was hurt in the second collision.