Good news -- women who have been cut off from reproductive healthcare by Republican-controlled legislatures will now receive care thanks to Title X grants just announced by the Obama administration.
The Obama administration has awarded generous new federal family planning grants to Planned Parenthood (PP) in three states where funding was cut by Republican legislators after they gained control of the House in 2010. The states that will receive the grant money are New Jersey, Tennessee and North Carolina. [...]
North Carolina will get $426,000 from the Title X grant, almost three times more than they were getting from the state before they were cut off. As a result, they will now be able to expand services to include men and grow teen counseling programs. The New Jersey Family Planning League (NJFPL) received $3.1 million in federal funding for PP clinics and Tennessee was awarded $395,000 per year for the next three years.
Paige Johnson, a spokesperson for a Planned Parenthood clinic in Durham, revealed that they have never had to utilize HHS for Title X grants until now. The clinic was forced to turn to HHS as a result of the state’s halt on funding. Under federal law, HHS is required to award grants in an effort to grow women’s access to affordable health care in areas where women need it most.
Conservative intransigence at the state level often carries with it the ironic side-effect of increasing federal involvement.
Exhibit A: healthcare exchanges. By forgoing the state's right to implement their own exchanges, they consequently turn more power over to the federal government.