Title X On The Chopping Block

As negotiations continue over a Fiscal Year (FY 2011) funding bill, Congress has now put Title X front and center. 

House Republicans are pushing to put Title X family planning dollars into the hands of state health departments.  This will give states the power to decide what agencies are funded – a tactic House Republicans hope will ultimately deny funding to Planned Parenthood. 

This plan clearly undermines the Title X network in many states – especially those with leadership that is already unfriendly to reproductive health services.  The family planning community needs to stand strong against this unprecedented attack on Title X. 

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) defended family planning and the Title X program on the Senate floor.  He pointed out how Republicans are holding a FY 2011 budget hostage and using family planning as a bargaining tool.

It has never been a more important time to call your legislators and let them know family planning services are non-negotiable!  This proposal will result in devastating cuts that will severely weaken the Title X programs and reduce access to care for millions of poor and low income women and men. 

Tell them:

 

• Title X with its mix of State government and nonprofit grantees is a very stable system efficiently serving over 5 million uninsured and low-income Americans.

 

• States vary hugely in their support of family planning both philosophically and financially.

 

• The Executive and Legislative branches of State government often disagree over reproductive health and these funds will well be embroiled in politics rather than seamlessly going to support the family planning safety net.

 

• States are having huge fiscal problems and are unlikely to be able to quickly hire staff and make funds available to the nation's 4,500 health centers that deliver family planning. Asking these Departments to do more with less would result in communities not having timely access to vital healthcare.  California's State Department of Public Health has been decimated in the last several years due to severe budget cuts.  They do not have the capacity to administer these dollars.

 

• Nonprofit grantees can often do and say what State governments cannot (for example, this call to action to protect basic healthcare for California's most vulnerable)

 

• California has been wildly successful in lowering teen pregnancy rates.  We believe any delay in these funds getting out to communities would put this in jeopardy and would not be acceptable.

 

Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to be connected with your Representative and Senators!