Federal government bypasses state agency, awards Title X grant to Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas.
Carolyn Jones
25 March 2013
Some family-planning funding in Texas will soon be under new management.
The federal government announced today that it would no longer give a
large slice of federal family-planning funds to the state of Texas.
Instead, the feds will award the $6.5 million grant to the Women’s
Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, a coalition of
providers led by Fran Hagerty, to distribute to clinics for birth
control, wellness exams, STD screenings and other family-planning
services.
The Observer reported in November
that the coalition would apply directly to the federal government for
the grant—called Title X (Title 10)—one of three federal funding streams
that pay for family-planning services in the state.
Before today, the sole grantee for Texas’ Title X funds had been the
Texas Department of State Health Services. The health department had in
turn distributed the grant money to family planning providers statewide.
But the 2011 Legislature slashed the $111-million family-planning
budget by two thirds, causing more than 60 clinics to close. The loss of
clinics resulted in the number of Texans receiving services through
Title X to drop by 50 percent, according to an annual review by the
Texas Department of State Health Services.
The
collateral damage wrought by the budget cuts has been widespread. Many
of the providers in Hagerty’s coalition had lost state family-planning
funds and are struggling to stay open.
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