Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Executive Order Cutting Planned Parenthood Out Of Title X Family Planning Grants May Come Next Month
Modern Healthcare: Trump Could Ban Title X Funding For Planned Parenthood
The Trump administration will cut Planned Parenthood out of Title X family planning grants with an executive order expected in early May, according to a White House aide. It's the most drastic move in President Donald Trump's strategy to reshape Title X. The program offers family planning services for about 4 million people, and 1.6 million, or 40%, of these get their Title X-funded care at Planned Parenthood clinics, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a women's reproductive health policy think tank. Trump's 2018 and 2019 budget blueprints called for banning all federal funding to Planned Parenthood. (Luthi, 4/26)
Texas Tribune: Report: Thousands More Texas Women Being Served In Health Programs
Texas served thousands more people in its women’s health and family planning programs last year compared to the year before. But it’s impossible to say if the number of women accessing such services has returned to the levels they were at before massive budget cuts during the 2011 legislative session. (Evans, 4/26)
Austin American-Statesman: TX Women’s Program Makes Gains After Years Of Waning Participation
After the state pursued a multi-million dollar marketing campaign to enroll more women in the program, the number of women served in 2017 increased by 29 percent since last year, from 70,336 to 122,406, according to the new report, which was mandated by the Texas Legislature last year. The number of providers also increased 16 percent between 2015 and 2017 and the number of women who received long-acting reversible contraception, like intrauterine devices, also increased. In 2017, 10,203 women in the Healthy Texas Women Program and 7,675 women in the state’s Family Planning Program received a form of the contraception. (Chang, 4/26)
And in other women's health news —
CQ: Abortion Squabble Delays House Panel Debate On State Bill
A planned House Foreign Affairs markup of the State Department policy bill has been indefinitely postponed, with members of both parties blaming Rep. Christopher H. Smith's insistence on debating abortion amendments for the delay. The New Jersey lawmaker is a senior Republican on the panel and has been considered a possible successor to Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., who is retiring at the end of this Congress. But the markup squabble could ultimately hurt his leadership prospects. (Oswald, 4/26)
Kansas City Star: Planned Parenthood Disputes Missouri Medication Abortion Law
Two Planned Parenthood groups — Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region — are pushing for a preliminary injunction to block the law, which they say is causing "irreparable harm" to the clinics and their patients and imposing an undue burden on women's right to choose abortion. They’re squaring off in federal court against the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the state. (homas, 4/26)
