The U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) released a list of Title X grants that will no longer include Planned Parenthood affiliates in five states because of their affiliation with abortion, a cut that amounts to a loss of about $44 million in taxpayer funding.
LifeNews.com is reporting on the grant announcement which is denying funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Hawaii, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Virginia. The government annually distributes $286 million in funds to health care providers, of which Planned Parenthood typically received from $50-$60 million annually. After the new rules were finalized and the money distributed, it will now receive only $16 million.
According to Politico, seven Planned Parenthood affiliates in eight states will still receive funding through 2022. As expected, Planned Parenthood is suing to block the new “anti-abortion” rules which take effect May 3, and is threatening to withdraw unless federal courts step in.
On the other hand, groups such as the pro-life Obria Group are now on the receiving end of Title X funding.
Obria will receive $1.7 million to provide comprehensive family planning services to low-income individuals in California. The group offers pregnancy testing and counseling, prenatal care, HIV/AIDS testing, ultrasounds, cancer screening, well-woman care, pap smears, STD testing and treatment, adoption referral and post-abortion support.
“Many women want the opportunity to visit a professional, comprehensive health care facility–not an abortion clinic — for their health care needs; this grant will give them that choice,” Kathleen Eaton Bravo, founder and CEO of the pro-life health care group, said in a statement.
Bravo’s personal experience with abortion is what inspired her to start three pregnancy centers in 1986, originally called “Birth Choice,” which grew to six fully licensed medical clinics by 2006.
“I wanted to create a comprehensive medical clinic model that could compete nose-to-nose with the large abortion providers for the lives of unborn babies and the soul of the mothers and fathers. In other words, get the patients out of abortion clinics and into our life-affirming clinics,” she explains on the group’s website.
Today, Obria has 36 affiliates in five states with 26 more in process. Her goal is to establish 200 pro-life, accredited, women’s comprehensive healthcare clinics by 2020.
Thanks to the changes in these rules, clinics such as Obria will now receive the funds they need to provide the kind of quality health care that women want.
During a recent interview with the Daily Signal, Bravo said, “Our goal is to basically say we’re going to build a model of comprehensive, holistic medical clinics so that a woman [facing an unplanned pregnancy] never has to darken the door of a Planned Parenthood again.”
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