Title X Under Trump: Planned Parenthood Out, Unplanned Parenthood In
The administration plans to cut all funding to Planned Parenthood clinics in 2027.
Last week, anti-abortion-rights freaks like Josh Hawley were very, very upset after it came out that the administration quietly released Title X grants to Planned Parenthood that had already been funded by the Biden administration — largely because their attempts to get out of releasing those funds have all failed in court. However, in what we can assume is an effort to appease Hawley and other anti-choice zealots, the Department of Health and Human Services released its new guidance for Title X grantees, which will go into effect in January 2027 when the five years of funding from the Biden administration runs out.
The new guidance is the unholy (though also very holy) melding of RFK Jr.’s favorite buzzwords and bad ideas with anti-abortion rights, pronatalist, anti-LGBTQ+ buzzwords and bad ideas — and seems more likely to cause unplanned pregnancies than to prevent them.
Title X is supposed to fund sexual health and family planning, the latter of which is traditionally thought of as individual people and families using contraception in order to thoughtfully plan out their own families based on what they can manage and afford, rather than having families thrust upon them when they are not ready. This idea, however, runs contrary not just to the GOP’s anti-abortion stance, but also the recently adopted batshit crazy “pronatalist” leanings of much of the Trump administration and its allies, who now encourage young people to “have more children than [they] can afford.”
That, perhaps, is why the new guidance only includes the term “contraception” once, and only to point out that there are now fewer people on medication birth control than there were a few years ago, because of “side effects.” The terms “birth control” and “IUD” are not mentioned even once in all 67 pages of the guidance, although “natural family planning” comes up four times. Conservatives have recently embraced “natural family planning” — commonly referred to as the “rhythm method” — as their favorite form of contraception due to how notoriously ineffective it is at actually preventing pregnancy.
Fertility and infertility are mentioned a combined total of 23 times, which I think really drives home the point that the administration is primarily concerned with the kind of family planning that involves people having more children.
Let’s take a look at the mostly appalling list of agency priorities that clinics must comply with in order to get federal funding next year, shall we?
1) Address the chronic disease epidemic
Now, there are several chronic health conditions that are obviously within the purview of sexual health, but there is a reason why the Trump administration is so very specifically focused on “preventing chronic disease” to the exclusion of all else, and why they are so concerned with “overmedication.” Health care is one of Republicans’ biggest weaknesses. It’s very expensive in this country, but they don’t want to subsidize it the way that other countries do. That is why they want to put the onus on the individual to stay healthy through nutrition and exercise. Their solution to it being too expensive to see a doctor, to there being a doctor shortage, to the high cost of needed medications, is pretty much just “stop seeing doctors and taking medications.”
Elsewhere in the guidance, this is made clear. They also took a very special moment to highlight “pornography use” as somehow contributing to chronic health conditions:
Chronic disease prevention and management are essential to improving public health and promoting healthy pregnancies and family formation. HHS is leading a science-driven response to the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, with a focus on identifying and addressing root causes that contribute to poor health outcomes, including those affecting fertility and reproductive health. OASH’s health programs and offices play a central role in developing solutions to reduce the burden of chronic disease through efforts that address nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and exposure to harmful chemical and environmental toxins. Integrating these priorities within the Title X program helps strengthen reproductive health outcomes by addressing conditions that affect women, such as hormonal imbalances, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, and uterine fibroids, as well as conditions that affect men, including low sperm count, low sperm motility, low testosterone levels, and erectile dysfunction. Title X services may also address lifestyle and behavioral factors—such as sleep quality, nutrition, physical activity, and pornography use—that influence hormonal function and health in males and females.
You don’t need to see a doctor! You just need to stop watching porn. Obviously.
2) End diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and practices across OASH’s programs
Gotta get that bigotry in somewhere.
3) Reduce overmedicalization in health care and increase focus on optimal health and addressing underlying root causes
4) Provide medically accurate and reliable information necessary for informed consent
Given who is pushing this, we can probably assume that this means the exact opposite of what it says — that they want care providers to tell people that vaccines cause autism and abortion will cause them to be possessed by legions of tiny demons.
5) Promoting evidence-based care through the delivery of Title X services
6) Enforce the Hyde Amendment
And not just the Hyde Amendment! The new guidance will also mark a return to the gag rule imposed during the first Trump administration, barring clinics that receive Title X funding from not only performing abortions, but from referring patients to abortion services provided elsewhere or even mentioning that abortion is an option. This had disastrous effects on sexual health in the United States during the last Trump administration.
Faced with those restrictions, more than a dozen grantees who collectively ran more than 900 clinics nationwide quit the program in protest, including 11 state health departments and all participating Planned Parenthood chapters. As a result, the network provided services to 844,083 fewer clients in 2019 compared with the previous year, according to HHS. In particular, 225,688 fewer patients received oral contraceptives; 49,803 fewer received hormonal implants; and 86,008 fewer clients received intrauterine devices.
Seems like that might be a better explanation for why fewer women are on birth control than there used to be, given that “the side effects” haven’t actually changed.
7) Ensure gold standard science, curtail corporate capture and prevent conflicts of interest
8) To the extent allowed under Federal law and regulations, including the preliminary injunction issued in New York, et al. v. DOJ, et al. (DRI), 1:25-cv-00345, OASH will prioritize programs, partnerships, and funding mechanisms that further the agency’s priority to ensure that federal resources are not used to facilitate or incentivize illegal immigration.
9) Ensure adolescent program materials are age-appropriate
10) Protect parental rights to direct the religious upbringing of their children.
The last two, clearly, are some especially chilling dog-whistles for “stop providing support for LGBTQ+ teens” — something that has long been a function of sexual health clinics. It is one thing to send one’s elementary school aged children to CCD, it is another entirely to demand that your teenager not be gay or trans because your religion is opposed to that. Frankly, it’s also pretty disturbing to suggest that children do not have a right to their own beliefs about religion and the supernatural and that the parents’ “right” should supercede theirs in this case.
The Department of Health and Human Services also released its proposed 2027 budget last week, which includes major cuts to sexual health and family planning services, most notably killing off the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program — as the Right has become increasingly “pro” teen pregnancy.
This round of funding will also, according to White House spokesperson Kush Desai, be the last funding that any Planned Parenthood clinics get for the rest of the Trump administration, and that they were only getting them because of “legal challenges.”
“The administration has issued the fifth and final year of Title X grants that were locked in place during the Biden presidency,” he told The Daily Wire. “The administration faced significant legal challenges in stopping any of these dollars from going out.”
“Title X funds cannot be used for abortions by law and, consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Enforcing the Hyde Amendment, the Administration remains committed to realigning the Title X program with the President’s pro-life and pro-family agenda going forward,” he added.
Gross.
On the semi-bright side, we’ll only have two years of this terrible “guidance” if a Democratic candidate wins in 2028, which right now seems pretty likely as long as we don’t somehow find a way to nominate someone who thinks this Iran war is a great idea. The dark side is that it will lead to even more clinic closures and a whole lot of unwanted, unvaccinated rhythm method babies (though probably more rhythm method abortions) … not to mention all of us having to live through those two years.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Got to get those breeding vessels prepped so they're yoked to the children of chuds. "Have children," these monsters bellow, as they seek to ruin the world. "Have children," they bay, as they destroy the United States via Miasma, Pestilence, Calamity and Destitution.
And of course, if you have children and you run into ANY trouble? You're on your own. These vampires just want the bodies to abuse and destroy. I am glad I never helped make any children for these monsters.
I'm not knocking good nutrition, but there's a giant industry promoting questionable diets and then there's the whole "supplement" industry. I've seen drugstores where the supplement aisle is bigger than the drug aisle. This is almost entirely woo.