The Trump Administration is blocking millions in funds intended for family planning, affecting over a dozen organizations.
Title X, a federal program established to provide family planning services, allocates millions to clinics offering services such as birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing to low-income individuals. Planned Parenthood stated in a March 31 press release that nine of its affiliates were notified that their Title X funding would be suspended starting April 1.
Planned Parenthood has stated that more than three-quarters of its affiliates rely on Title X funding, with over 1.5 million visits to Planned Parenthood health centers supported by Title X in 2023.
One affected affiliate is , serving those four states as well as Idaho and western Washington. CEO Rebecca Gibron estimates the freeze will withhold approximately $3 million annually from five of the six states PPGNHAIK serves: Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Alaska, and Hawaii. Gibron notes that over half of PPGNHAIK’s health centers across six states serve more than 40,000 patients yearly through Title X.
Gibron states, “In our states, we are a safety net provider providing affordable birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, and treatment. These patients rely on Title X for their health care, and without this program, patients may have no access to this care at all.” Planned Parenthood Action Fund President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson suggests that limiting access to this care could lead to undetected cancers, reduced access to birth control, and increased sexually transmitted infections.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson told TIME via email that Title X funds are being withheld from 16 organizations pending a review for potential violations of grant terms, including those related to Federal civil rights laws and Executive Order 14218, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” signed by Trump on Feb. 19. The states that undocumented immigrants are generally ineligible for taxpayer-funded benefits.
The spokesperson added that the HHS is conducting this review to ensure compliance with Federal law and grant terms, and to ensure responsible use of taxpayer money. Details regarding the “possible violations,” the amount of funds being withheld, and the specific organizations affected were not provided.
On March 25, the reported that the HHS was considering freezing $27.5 million from the annual Title X budget.
Gibron deems the withholding of funds “politically motivated,” accusing the Trump Administration of aiming to “shut down Planned Parenthood health centers to appease their anti-abortion backers,” and calling the Title X freeze the “latest attempt” to defund Planned Parenthood.
Gibron emphasizes that Planned Parenthood health centers nationwide serve millions annually, welcoming everyone regardless of immigration status, political affiliation, race, or gender. She asserts that access to fundamental reproductive and sexual health services is essential healthcare.
In 2019, the Trump Administration imposed a new restriction on Title X recipients, prohibiting abortion referrals (Title X funds do not cover abortion services). The , which researches and supports sexual and reproductive health and rights, that this restriction, often called the “domestic gag rule,” combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in the loss of 981 health care centers from the Title X program and approximately 2.4 million fewer patients receiving care through the program in 2020 compared to 2018. The Biden Administration the domestic gag rule in 2021.
Essential Access Health, which distributes Title X funds to clinics in California and Hawaii, reported in a press release shared with TIME that it also received notice of a temporary hold on its Title X funds while it responds to “an inquiry regarding compliance with federal policy and practices related to civil rights and Executive Orders focused on DEI activities within 10 days.” Trump signed an aimed at (DEI) efforts on his first day in office.
Essential Access Health stated in its press release that this unprecedented and arbitrary pause in crucial resource distribution harms both patients and providers and that any funding delay is detrimental and an extended delay would devastate the family planning safety net.
Reproductive rights experts have criticized the Trump Administration’s decision to freeze Title X funds. Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director of federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute, stated that while not surprised, she considers the move “absolutely devastating.” She estimates that between 600,000 and 1.25 million people could be affected annually, based on .
Friedrich-Karnik emphasizes the program’s clear impact on access to necessary reproductive health care services, its benefits to those who have accessed it, and its crucial role in filling a significant gap for those unable to obtain healthcare elsewhere. She stresses that not only are reproductive health care services such as contraception, STI testing, and cancer screenings at risk, but that for many people, this is their only contact with the healthcare system.
Data from the indicates that approximately 83% of patients receiving care from Title X-funded clinics in 2023 had family incomes at or below 250% of the . Friedrich-Karnik says also shows that people of color disproportionately access Title X services, calling the freeze “a direct attack on health equity.” She notes that Title X was established “to ensure that historically underserved communities were able to access health care and reproductive health care,” and that the Trump Administration’s actions penalize Title X recipients “for doing exactly what the program is set up to do.”
Friedrich-Karnik concludes that the freeze is “definitely an attack” on low-income individuals, “who already have the most barriers to accessing health care services.”