Biden administration provides over $6M in grants to protect reproductive health care

The Biden administration is set to provide more than $6 million in new Title X grants and other grants to protect access to reproductive health care, according to a report released from the White House on Tuesday.

The funding will be provided through the Department of Health and Human Services and is also intended to improve service delivery, promote the adoption of healthy behaviors and reduce existing health disparities.

The administration, in its announcement, reiterated its support for the Title X family planning program, which has provided health services for millions of low-income Americans since 1970.

The funding announced builds on the $400 million in Title X funds for fiscal 2023 that the president requested.

Additionally, the Department of Education will release guidance to universities, which will reiterate the Title IX requirement that institutions must protect their students from discrimination based on pregnancy, including pregnancy termination.

President Biden and Vice President Harris will attend the second meeting of the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on Tuesday and deliver remarks. The report released on Tuesday came from Jen Klein, director of the Gender Policy Council.

Klein also outlined actions from the administration since the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was 100 days ago as of Sunday.

Klein wrote in the report that “the only way to fully protect women’s access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion, is for Congress to pass a law codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade. Republicans in Congress have blocked that – and Republican elected officials at the state and national level have taken extreme steps to block women’s access to health care.”

Klein noted that in the past 100 days, women had not been able to access health care and doctors and nurses have faced criminal penalties for offering it.

She outlined that nearly 30 million women of reproductive age now live in a state with a ban, including nearly 22 million women who cannot access abortion care after six weeks.

She also bashed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) legislation that would impose a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressional Republicans introduced a national abortion ban that threatens to put doctors in jail for performing an abortion to save the health of their patients, for offering a full range of miscarriage care, or for providing an abortion to a woman carrying a fetus with little to no chance of survival,” Klein said.