Congress Moves to End Nation's Family Planning Program; Could Leave Over 92,000 Illinoisans without Care

CHICAGO, IL – This week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies issued a 2016 fiscal year funding proposal that would eliminate the Title X Family Planning program, cutting health care that nearly 4.6 million people nationwide, including nearly 14,000 Planned Parenthood of Illinois patients, currently rely on. The funding bill would also eliminate nearly all federal funding for teen pregnancy prevention and evidence-based sex education programs.

Statement from Carole Brite, President & CEO, Planned Parenthood of Illinois:

“It is heartbreaking that Congress would gut the nation’s teen pregnancy prevention and sex education programs, just as Illinois has made historic advancements in reducing teen pregnancy. We must not go back on the progress we’ve made.

“The threat to Title X makes no sense. This program makes basic preventive services possible for thousands of Illinois women — including family planning services, well-woman exams, lifesaving cancer screenings, HIV counseling and testing, birth control, and testing and treatments for sexually transmitted infections. 

Background:

Planned Parenthood’s doctors and nurses provide high-quality, affordable health care to 2.7 million people a year. The effort to eliminate the Title X Family Planning program would shatter the country’s public health safety net and jeopardize women’s health.

These cuts would impact approximately 1.5 million Planned Parenthood patients, nearly 14,000 of whom are in Illinois, who benefit from the Title X Family Planning program.  

Eighty-one percent of American voters favor continuing federal government efforts to help women who can’t afford it get access to birth control.

Investments in women's health services are not only providing women with more control over their health and their own family planning; they are also a great deal for taxpayers. According to research released by the Guttmacher Institute, for every $1 we invest in publicly funded family planning services, we save $7 in the long run.

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Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) provides affordably-priced, high-quality reproductive health care services to women and families throughout Illinois. Through health care services, educational programs and advocacy efforts, PPIL works to ensure and protect the reproductive rights of each individual. For more information, visit www.ppil.org.