5 Fast Facts About Planned Parenthood’s Withdrawal from Title X
On Monday, Planned Parenthood was forced to withdraw from the Title X family planning program, which has federally subsidized birth control and other reproductive and sexual health resources since 1970. This happened because of the Trump administration’s gag rule, which prohibits Title X grantees from providing abortions and accurate information about abortion to patients.
Here’s what you need to know about what this means for our patients, and what you can do to help.
- Title X funds cover many essential health services.
More than four million people rely on affordable birth control and reproductive health care services that are funded by Title X. Many of these people don’t even know Title X exists, but without it they wouldn’t be able to access this essential care. The basic primary and preventive health care services provided by Title X include:
- Wellness exams
- Lifesaving cervical and breast cancer screenings
- Birth control
- Contraception education
- Testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV testing
In 2016 alone, health centers used Title X funding to provide 720,000 Pap tests, more than four million STD tests (including HIV tests), and nearly one million women with breast exams. According to a 2014 report by the Guttmacher Institute, Title X-funded clinics alone helped people avert 904,000 unintended pregnancies, 439,000 unplanned births and 326,000 abortions that year.
While we believe that abortion is also an essential health service and proudly provide it, federal funds do not fund abortions (there are a few very narrow exceptions), contrary to popular belief.
2. The majority of Title X patients live below the federal poverty line.
In 2015, across New York State, 91 percent of clients served were women, 60 percent had incomes at or below the poverty line, and 32 percent lacked health insurance. Planned Parenthood serves nearly half (40%) of the 4 million people with low incomes who rely on Title X nationwide. In New York state alone, Planned Parenthood serves over half (52%) of Title X patients.
3. Loss of Title X funds will hit Black and Latinx communities and LGBTQ communities the hardest.
Poverty is a common denominator for Title X patients, who face overlapping barriers to accessing health care, education, and child care. Think about it: Slavery and Jim Crow laws historically prevented Black people from building wealth. And public benefits policies have long excluded people of color, both directly and indirectly.
Historic, systemic discrimination has the same effect on poverty in LGBTQ communities. While 19 percent of straight women experience poverty, 24 percent of lesbian and bisexual women do. Transgender people are nearly four times more likely than cisgender people to be in extreme poverty with a yearly income below $10,000.
The resulting income inequality means Title X has a racially and ethnically diverse patient base, serves many people who are LGBTQ, and is vital for people who live in rural areas. Title X helps them afford reproductive health care. That care gives them more control over their lives — including their overall health, if/when they have children, their career, and their finances. The Trump-Pence administration’s gag rule would negatively affects all of these things.
The need for publicly supported care has only grown among people of color. From 2010–2014, the number of Hispanic women in need of publicly supported care increased by 9%, the number of Black women in need increased by 6% and the number of white women in need increased by 2%. Of the 15 million people in need of publicly supported services in 2014, 3.6 million were non-Hispanic black and 5 million were Hispanic.
4. The fight isn’t over.
If you want to fight for access to health care for all, you can call your senators and demand they protect access to birth control and Title X, and end the domestic and global gag rules. You can become a volunteer, activist, or health center escort. You can also register to vote and ensure that you are represented by elected officials who will fight for your right to reproductive health care.
5. Planned Parenthood’s doors are staying open.
PPNYC’s doors will remain open and we will do whatever it takes to continue to provide high-quality sexual and reproductive health care to anyone who walks through them. There will be no interruption in service. We will continue to provide care for everyone who needs it, while still being in compliance with all local and federal policies. The gag rule being in effect will cause a major financial strain on us and all Planned Parenthood affiliates, as well as other providers who have received Title X funding and who refuse to continue to participate in the program with the gag rule’s unethical requirements.
We have limited emergency funds that will allow us to continue providing care for patients in the short term, until this crisis is over. We refuse to withhold information from our patients and believe they should be able to make their own decisions about what is best for their lives, health, and families.
Know this — Planned Parenthood of New York City will always be here for our patients and we will continue to fight for everyone’s ability to get affordable, quality health care. We are working closely with state and city elected officials to ensure that New Yorkers will always have access to this care.
