Title X

Richard A. Sokerka

Title X is a family planning program, designed to provide low-income women with pre-pregnancy services. In its original design, and reflected in current law, there is a specific prohibition on abortion-related activities. However, in the years since the program’s creation in 1970, it has been interpreted to require grantees to refer for abortion, thus both overtly excluding health centers who object to such referrals from applying for Title X grants and also ensuring a direct link between family planning services and the promotion of abortion. This link is exemplified by the alarming number of Title X recipients that also provide and promote abortion.

But the Trump Administration has announced that it intends to separate abortion from the Title X family planning program as it was originally designed.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in a statement said, “The news that the Trump Administration will be issuing new regulations to separate abortion from the federal Title X family planning program is greatly needed and deeply appreciated. Abortion always takes the life of a child and often harms the mother, her surviving children, and other family and friends as well. Most Americans recognize that abortion is distinct from family planning and has no place in a taxpayer-funded family planning program. For too long, Title X has been used to subsidize the abortion industry. We need to draw a bright line between what happens before a pregnancy begins and what happens after a child has been created.”

The proposal put forth by the Trump Administration would eliminate a current mandate that recipients must counsel or refer for abortion—that requirement proved to be a barrier for groups like the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) that object to abortion on medical, religious and moral grounds.

“We at the CMA have been talking with the White House about this obstacle which prevented us from accessing the funding and have been strongly urging the administration to make funds available for abstinence and natural family programs. Now that the abortion and contraception referral is gone we are now finally eligible and applying,” said Dr. Peter T. Morrow, CMA president. “This President continues to promote a pro-life culture,” said Morrow. ”This money will now go to comprehensive family health and planning centers that don’t perform abortions and understand that abortion is not health care.”

According to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, “The federal government’s Title X Family Planning program has always been prohibited from funding programs where abortion is a method of family planning. Now President Trump is proposing regulations to enforce that rule, which has been ignored by recent presidents.”

The 1970 law establishing Title X made crystal clear that abortion is not family planning. And a Marist poll this year commissioned by the Knights of Columbus showed that a consensus of Americans across party lines want to see an end to taxpayer funding of abortions. Of those polled, four in 10, who identified themselves as “pro-choice” and more than four in 10 Democrats — along with the overwhelming majority of Republicans — held this position.

Restoring Title X to its original intent will not only stop taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions, but it will also help to protect the health of women and their unborn children.