WASHINGTON, D.C. — Planned Parenthood said Monday it will withdraw from the federal Title X program that helps low-income people access contraception rather than comply with what it calls a new Trump administration “gag rule” that prohibits it from providing abortion referrals to those patients.

The announcement comes amid a protracted legal battle with the White House over changes to the nearly 50-year-old Title X program, which annually provides $286 million to health care providers to fund family planning services such as birth control. The administration required grantees to explain by Monday how they would comply with the new rule.

The decision by Planned Parenthood — which gets about $60 million in funding — is the latest in a years-long battle between abortion rights supporters and Republicans, who have advocated to eliminate all federal funding for abortion providers and to “defund” Planned Parenthood.

The Trump administration’s new policy could have an effect on all 4,000 of the country’s Title X-funded facilities. But Planned Parenthood plays an outsize role in the program, treating 41% of the Title X patients in the country.

Planned Parenthood last week asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an injunction to block the policy while it and other health care organizations appealed the court’s earlier decision to uphold the administration’s new policy. The group warned in a letter last week that without emergency action by the court, it would “now have no option but to withdraw from the Title X program.”

The court has not done so but it has agreed to revisit the ruling at oral arguments on Sept. 23.

The policy does not prevent health care providers from mentioning abortion, but it prevents them from making a referral or telling patients where they could get one. Planned Parenthood and the American Medical Association, which is also suing the administration over the policy, call it a “gag rule” because it interferes in a doctor’s relationship with the patient and his or her ability to provide the care they think is best.

The Trump administration argues that its policy would ensure that taxpayers are not indirectly funding abortions, a top priority of antiabortion groups. The Title X program already prohibits participants from using any of the money to fund abortions.