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Purpose and Authorization
The Social Services Block Grant or Title XX of the Social Security Act was developed in 1981 to consolidate federal assistance to the states into a single grant. States can use the money to fund services that work to accomplish, among others, the following goals:1
- Help individuals achieve or maintain economic self-sufficiency.
- Prevent or remedy abuse, neglect, or exploitation of those who cannot protect themselves.
- Provide community-based care.
These goals encompass childcare services, protective services for children and adults, services for home management, delivery of in-home meals, health services, and family planning services. The groups covered are uninsured children and adults, the aged, the mentally retarded, the blind, the emotionally disturbed, the physically handicapped, alcoholics and drug addicts.
Title XX Helps Women in Texas
- Each state determines how its Title XX funds will be used. While Texas uses no state funding streams to provide for family planning services, it does allocate a portion of its Title XX funds to pay for family planning services to low-income individuals. In 2005, approximately 238,576 people in Texas received family planning services through Title XX.2
How Title XX Helps Women in North Texas
- Thirteen of PPNT's 28 clinics receive Title XX funds. These clinics are located in Arlington, Corsicana, Fort Worth, Gainesville, Lewisville, Mesquite, Paris, Plano, Terrell and Tyler.
- In 2005, PPNT was able to provide services to more than 29,000 clients with funding from Title XX. PPNT provided services to approximately 79,344 women and men in 2005.3
Effects of Cutting Title XX Funding for Family Planning Programs
- Family planning organizations, like PPNT, cannot extend services to more of the 1.4 million still unserved Texas women who qualify for subsidized family planning services.4
- 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.5
- Title XX was funded at $2.8 billion in the early 1990s. However, for the last 6 years, the current administration has only funded the program for $1.7 billion each fiscal year.6
Positive Effects of Title XX
- It costs less than $200 annually to provide family planning for one low-income woman.7
- For every $1.00 spent on preventing unintended pregnancies, $3.00 in Medicaid costs in pregnancy-related and newborn costs are saved in the first year alone.8
- It helps family planning organizations provide Pap smears, breast and pelvic exams, diagnosis of and referral for breast and cervical cancer, birth control, blood pressure measurements, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and other health services to women and men who otherwise have no contact with the health care system.
- It prevents unintended pregnancies and abortion.
1. Title XX, Social Security Act, sec. 2001.42 USC 1397, Social Security Administration. [Online, accessed December 14, 2006, www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title20/2000.htm]
2. Texas Department of State Health Services. Family Planning Annual Report submitted to Federal Office of Population Affairs. Publication of report is pending.
3. ___. Unpublished data from state reports. 2005.
4. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). "One Million Women in Need of Publicly Funded Contraception." Guttmacher Policy Review. v 9, n 3, 2006. [Online, accessed December 14, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/09/3/gpr090320.html]
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 January 3, 2007, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2818896.html]
6. AGI. "Block Grants are Key Source of Support for Family Planning." The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy. v 2, n 4. August 1999. [Online, accessed December 14, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/02/4/gr020406.html]
7. Frost, Jennifer J., Adam Sonfield and Rachel Benson Gold. Estimating the Impact of Expanding Medicaid Eligibility for Family Planning Services. Occasional report n. 28, AGI, 2006. [Online, accessed December 15, 2006, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/08/16/or28.pdf]
8. Gold, Rachel Benson. "Title X: Three Decades of Accomplishment." The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy. v 4, n 1. February 2001. [Online, accessed January 3, 2007, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/04/1/gr040105.html]
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