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Purpose and Authorization
Title X (ten) of the Public Health Service Act was signed into law by President Nixon in 1970 and is the only national program dedicated solely to funding reproductive health care services for low-income women.1 Administered through state health departments and regional agencies, Title X currently helps more than 4,500 health care clinics nationwide.2
Title X provides funding to clinics for:
- Salaries of clinic personnel.
- Purchase of contraceptives and medical supplies.
- Subsidization of services to clients.
- The use of Title X funds for abortions is prohibited.
Title X funded clinics provide confidential reproductive health services including:
- Pelvic exams and cancer screening Pap smears.
- Testing for high blood pressure, anemia, and diabetes.
- Testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
- Non-coercive contraception services.
- Non-directive counseling for pregnant women.
Title X Helps Women
- Title X helps clinics provide basic reproductive health care to more than five million low-income American women a year.3 For 80% of these women throughout the U.S., a family planning clinic is their only source of health care.4
- Title X helps women avoid over one million unintended pregnancies a year, over half of which would end in abortion.5
- Among U.S. women who have never been married, public family planning funds prevent approximately 888,200 unintended pregnancies, 421,900 abortions, and 356,200 unintended births each year.6
- Over the last two decades, Title X has provided an estimated 57.3 million Pap tests, resulting in the early detection of as many as 55,000 cases of invasive cervical cancer.7
How Title X Helps Women in North Texas
- Thirteen of PPNT's 28 clinics receive funding through Title X. These include clinics in Arlington, Corsicana, Fort Worth, Gainesville, Lewisville, Mesquite, Paris, Plano, Terrell, and Tyler.
- Through Title X, PPNT was able to serve more than 29,000 women and men in the North Texas area in 2005.8
Title X Saves The Public Money
- Every $1.00 spent to provide family planning services saves an estimated $3.00 in Medicaid costs for pregnancy-related care and medical care for newborns in the first year.9
- Reproductive health care helps catch manageable conditions and infections before they become more advanced, dangerous and expensive to treat.
1. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). "U.S. Agencies Providing Publicly Funded Contraceptive Services in 1999." Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. v. 34, n. 1. February 2002. [Online, accessed December 12, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3401502.html].
2. AGI. Family Planning Annual Report: 2004 Summary. July 2005. [Online, accessed December 12, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FPAR2004.pdf]
3. Ibid.
4. Kaeser, Lisa, et al. Title X at 25: Balancing National Family Planning Needs with State Flexibility. 1996. New York, NY: Alan Guttmacher Institute.
5. Forrest, Jacqueline, & Renee Samara. "Impact of Publicly Funded Contraceptive Services on Unintended Pregnancies and Implications for Medicaid Expenditures." Family Planning Perspectives. v 28, n 4. October 1996. [Online, accessed December 13, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2818896.html].
6. Ibid.
7. Gold, Rachel Benson. "Title X: Three Decades of Accomplishment." The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy. v 4, n 1. February 2001. [Online, accessed December 13, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/04/1/gr040105.html]
8. ____. Unpublished data from Planned Parenthood of North Texas.
9. Gold. "Title X: Three Decades of Accomplishments." Guttmacher Report on Public Policy. February 2001.
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