Administration’s new family planning strategy to encourage abstinence ed
Issues@Hand
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May 2018 – The Trump administration has proposed a new strategy for how it issues funds in federal family-planning grants, favoring groups that encourage abstinence.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced its guidelines and priorities for the next round of Title X grant applications. The guidelines repeatedly mentioned “natural family planning,” which includes all strategies for avoiding pregnancy that do not include contraceptives or birth-control pills.
The president signed a bill last year giving states the option of blocking Title X funding to Planned Parenthood, and pro-abortion organizations are concerned that the new Title X guidelines edge them out of the program.
Valerie Huber, overseer of the Title X office at HHS, said “it is encouraged” for organizations receiving a grant to stress counseling adolescents to practice abstinence to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
