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Three Virginia Planned Parenthood health centers in Richmond, Hampton and Virginia Beach have been affected by federal Title X family planning grant freezes, losing over $1 million in funds fueling family planning services.
Established in 1970, the federal program helps low and extremely low-income people access family planning care like contraception, sexually transmitted disease screenings and treatment as well as cancer screenings, at low or no cost.
Virginia League for Planned Parenthood CEO Paulette McElwain said that clinics in Virginia became aware of the federal funding changes on March 31, which means that about 11,000 patients will now have to pay higher costs for services.
She added that more than half of the Title X patients that VLPP cares for have incomes at or below the federal poverty level 鈥� the demographics that the federal funding program is meant to support.
鈥淰LPP is working hard to keep costs for patients as low as possible but inevitably, the loss of $1.2 million in funds that directly subsidized family planning services will impact patients,鈥� McElwain said. 鈥淚t is profoundly disappointing that the Trump administration is putting politics ahead of the health care needs of the people Planned Parenthood serves.鈥�
The Trump administration is聽over the cuts to the funding. California, Hawaii, Mississippi, Maine, Missouri, Montana and Utah have been completely cut off from the grants, according to the lawsuit, while Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia have had their access reduced. While costs for care have gone up for patients in Virginia, other states have聽聽of reduced hours, laid off staff or closures of clinics altogether.
Filed in the District Court of Columbia, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and the American Civil Liberties Union鈥檚聽argues that about 842,000 people across the affected states now face reduced access to care. With the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. named as the top defendant, the suit argues that HHS has withheld $65.8 million over disagreements about organizations鈥� 鈥渙pposition to racism鈥� and speculation of 鈥減roviding care to undocumented immigrants.鈥�
While legal challenges to changes in reproductive health care access play out at the federal level, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin may soon weigh in on a right-to-contraception bill from this most recent legislative session. After passing the legislature, he sought amendments.
驰辞耻苍驳办颈苍鈥檚听of the bill reinforces two U.S. Supreme Court cases that deal with access to contraception nationwide, while the right-to-contraception proposal prior to his substitute would apply specifically to Virginia if those federal cases should be overturned.
After helping overturn federal abortion protections in 2022, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas expressed interest in revisiting cases that upheld contraception protections. As some states have also聽聽in recent years, reproductive rights advocates and some lawmakers in Virginia have聽聽the benefit of strengthening state law, should federal protections for contraception also be overturned.
While the measure also cleared the legislature last year, Youngkin sought amendments that the bill鈥檚 patrons said 鈥済utted鈥� it because it reinstated the federal court cases for which protection hinges on聽
He has until Friday to choose to sign the bill as it had cleared the legislature this year, or to veto it聽 again.
