“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
-Benjamin Franklin
American politicians like to think their policies have ideological roots in the Founding Fathers’ wisdom. Back in 1970, President Richard Nixon passed what was known as the Title X Family Planning Program, a bill supported by the vast majority of Congress, with the goal of ensuring counseling and contraceptive coverage for low-income, uninsured Americans. After signing it, Nixon said, “The bill before me today, the ‘Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970,’ completes the legislation I requested in my message on population. This measure provides for expanded research, training of manpower, and increased family planning services. In addition, it provides for the development of family planning and population growth information and education.”
Forty-four years later, Title X funding reduces the cost burden of family planning services for about 4.8 million Americans, according to the most recent 2012 Family Planning Annual Report from the Office of Public Affairs. The logic behind the law is to prevent unintended pregnancies for destitute adults, which should give them more control of their sexual well-being. According to the report, more than nine out 10 users were women; 71 percent had family income levels below the $23,050 poverty threshold. Sixty-four percent were uninsured, and 49 percent were under 25 years old. Men, of course, are not excluded from the services offered. They can get tested for STDs — a useful service with Lubbock having the 17th highest syphilis rate in Texas — and seek out sexual health counseling.
The contraceptive services end at contraceptive education, but the program has nonetheless been conflated with the abortion battle being waged in the state. This is mainly due to the fact Planned Parenthood affiliates, offering family planning services along with abortions, receive funding from the program. Even though Title X has become targeted in recent years, its services actually are designed to prevent abortions from happening through preventive care.
An August 2014 study by the Guttmacher Institute found Title X clinics helped prevent 1.1 million unintended pregnancies in 2012, which would have led to about 527,000 unintended births and 363,000 abortions. It also turns out these clinics save government spending as well; another key finding in the study was publicly funded clinics saved the federal and state governments about $7.6 billion in 2010 — with Title X services accounting for $5.6 billion of it.
With Title X funds facing budget cuts a few years ago and Planned Parenthood of Texas facing political fallout from the state’s stance on abortion, state health groups applied for the Title X federal grant in 2012 to control the money.
In 2013, Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas became the voice of Title X for the state.
Fran Hagerty, the agency’s CEO, signs off on her email’s with a quote from a speech delivered to Congress by former President Nixon in 1969.
“It is my view that no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition.”
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