Weakening the Safety Net: A Close Look at Title X
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What is Title X?
Signed into law with bipartisan support by President Nixon in 1970, Title X provides funding for comprehensive family planning care to individuals who are 0-250% of the federal poverty level. Essential Access Health has been the sole Title X grantee for the state of California for the past four years where California receives approximately $19-23M per year in funding.
The program serves more than 1 million people statewide. In SCG’s eight county service area, more than 450,000 people receive Title X services. A very diverse array of providers receive funding in California that make up 63 agencies that operate 366 clinic sites. These providers include federally qualified health centers, school-based clinics, Planned Parenthoods, hospitals, and universities.
What Does Title X Fund?
The program pays for medical care as well as outreach, community education, counseling, electronic medical records, transportation, teen clinics, expanded hours, and more. Title X funding has also exponentially improved the healthcare workforce; in addition to providing funding for direct care, it also provides funding for training and technical assistance for community health workers, social workers, public health nurses, etc.
Why is This Important Today?
In 2018, the funding priorities of Title X changed for the first time to focus on abstinence (“sexual risk avoidance”) as opposed to contraception. Title X was one way individuals had access to affordable abortions as it is illegal to use federal funding to cover abortion procedures. The teen birth rate has decreased by 77% since 1991, in part due to work funded by Title X. New regulations will no longer allow non-directive options counseling and physicians may not even mention abortion as an option.
New proposed regulations also have a greater focus on opioid abuse and STD prevention; however, they also include regulations that (if enacted) would dramatically change the intent and implementation of the program in devastating ways.
Essential Access Health’s 2017-2019 Strategic Plan outlines how they will keep sexual and reproductive health as an essential part of a healthy society amidst a shifting environment in family planning health services.