WASHINGTON DC - Four Democrat Senators including Maryland's Chris Van Hollen, introduced a bill to protect access to reproductive health care funding Thursday.
In a statement announcing the bill, titled The Expanding Access to Family Planning Act, the Title X Family Planning Program would see both an increase and protection of funding . According to Van Hollen, currently the program is funded on a per-year basis, and when over 1.5 million people use Title X services in a year (this was the number for 2020), there is never enough funding to meet the national need.
Van Hollen claims that the bill would
- Ensure yearly funding of $500 million (the program received $286 million in 2022)
- Ensure yearly funding of $50 million for clinic construction, renovation, and related infrastructure improvements
- Reinstate regulations banning discrimination of providers who deliver Title X services
- Require that pregnancy counseling include information about prenatal care and delivery, infant care, foster care, adoption, and pregnancy termination, unless a patient does not have any interest in receiving information about an option.
“Every year Title X ensures millions of Americans are able to access affordable family planning and preventive health services," Van Hollen said. "As Republicans’ extremist agenda threatens women’s access to safe and reliable reproductive health care, increasing our investment in Title X is all the more important to providing care to women across the country. Whether it’s receiving birth control, infertility services, or life-saving cervical and breast cancer screenings, this legislation will help more women get the services they need.”
Other senators introducing the bill include Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota senator Tina Smith, and Washington senator Patty Murray.