Women’s health: Title X, the grant for family planning and related health services

What it is

Title X is formally the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. It's the only federal grant program dedicated exclusively to family planning and reproductive health care, funding services like contraception, STI testing, and cancer screenings for low-income and uninsured patients through a national network of clinics.

What it states

Title X funds cannot be used "in programs where abortion is a method of family planning." Since that one-sentence funding restriction is open to interpretation, every president has gotten to decide how strictly to read it.

Where it stands now

In March 2025, the second Trump administration froze grants to sixteen Title X recipients, including all nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, pending review of their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies . An estimated 874 clinics across 23 states were disrupted, with seven states again left without any Title X provider.

Why this matters for the rest of the series

Title X shows a different kind of fragility than Roe's. Roe could be reversed because it was judicial interpretation with no statutory backing. Title X is a real statute that Congress actually passed, but because the statute leaves the details to executive regulation, the program has still flipped direction roughly every time the White House changes party, without Congress ever having to touch the underlying law. It's a reminder that having something codified as a statute doesn't automatically make it stable if the statute leaves the substance to the executive branch to fill in.