From Politico – meet Title X

Primer on Title X: the fund behind the Planned Parenthood rider

With hours remaining before a government shutdown, Title X has become the most-talked about title in D.C. since “Game Change,” but what exactly is it?

House Republicans say there’s no long-term budget deal without defunding it; Senate Democrats, like Dianne Feinstein of California, say the GOP is using the policy point as a way to “really sock it to women.” Many have referred to repealing the measure as defunding “Planned Parenthood” — but that’s not quite the entire picture.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the umbrella of organizations funded by Title X extends far beyond Planned Parenthood. In 2008, 88 grantees provided family planning services to 5 million women and men through 4,500 clinics, and other health centers and nonprofits.

According to a fact sheet from the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health issues, of the 36 million women who needed contraception in 2008, 17.4 million used publicly funded services.

Additionally, Title X only provided for 12 percent of public funds made available for such care. Medicaid, by contrast, accounted for 71 percent.

Title X was approved in 1970, championed on the Hill by former President and then-Congressman George H.W. Bush and signed into law by Richard Nixon.

“We need to make population and family planning household words.” Bush said in 1969 when the legislation was being debated. “We need to take sensationalism out of this topic so that it can no longer be used by militants who have no real knowledge of the voluntary nature of the program but, rather are using it as a political steppingstone. If family planning is anything, it is a public health matter.”