Title X Family Planning Program

February 21, 2011

Title X Family Planning Program

A federal budget amendment that cuts the entire $317 million program of aid for family planning and bars Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds for any purpose passed the House with a margin of 26 votes, five of which were from Wisconsin representatives. Representatives Sean Duffy, Tom Petri, Reid Ribble, Paul Ryan, and F. James Sensenbrenner voted yes; Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, and Gwen Moore voted no.

The Title X Family Planning program is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. Approximately 75% of U.S. counties have at least one clinic that receives Title X funds, and these funds are pivotal to maintaining wide access to family planning services, especially for low-income or uninsured individuals.  In addition to contraceptive services, Title X clinics provide patient education and counseling to promotes positive birth outcomes and healthy families; breast and pelvic examinations; breast and cervical cancer screening; STD and HIV prevention education, counseling, testing and referral; and pregnancy diagnosis and counseling.

Contraceptive services provided by Title X clinics reduce unintended pregnancies, which in turn reduces abortions.  Furthermore, money invested in Title X services provide future taxpayer savings by reducing future Medicaid costs.   For this reason, cutting Title X is not a cost-saving measure and will actually increase the deficit in the long term.  The Guttmacher Institute estimates:

“Contraceptive services at Title X–supported family planning centers helped women and couples avoid 973,000 unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in 433,000 unplanned births and 406,000 abortions. Without these services, unintended pregnancy and abortion in the United States would be one-third higher. And by helping women avoid unintended pregnancies, Title X–supported centers saved taxpayers $3.4 billion in 2008, amounting to $3.74 saved for every $1 spent providing contraceptive care.”

In Wisconsin

Title X–supported centers provided contraceptive care to 52,200 women in Wisconsin in 2008.  The impact of these funds include:

•In 2008, contraceptive services provided at Title X–supported centers in Wisconsin helped women avoid 10,800 unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in 4,800 births and 4,500 abortions.

•In 2006, contraceptive services provided at Title X–supported centers in Wisconsin helped women younger than age 20 avoid 3,319 unintended pregnancies.

•In the absence of these services, the level of abortion in Wisconsin would be 42% higher.

•In the absence of these services, the level of teen pregnancy in Wisconsin would be 36% higher.

•By helping women avoid unintended pregnancies and the births that would follow, the services provided at Title X–supported centers in Wisconsin saved $41,863,000 in public funds in 2008.

Note: While The Guttmacher Institute (the source of the estimates in this post) advocates for women’s ability “to exercise their reproductive rights and responsibilities,” factcheck.org writes:  “Guttmacher ‘provides the most highly respected statistics on the sexual health of women and men. Its figures on abortion are widely cited by the media as well as by groups on both sides of the political aisle.’ So far as we know, they are the most accurate figures available.”

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