June 12, 2007 -- HHS Sets $81 Million for Family Planning in 2008

The Office of Population Affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday that it expects to make approximately $81.1 million available for Title X family planning grants to public or nonprofit agencies in 21 specified states or population areas in fiscal year 2008. As in previous years, the grants may not be used for programs in which abortion is a method of family planning, and grantees must provide counseling to minors on how to resist efforts to coerce them into sexual activities. Recipients of grants are also required to conform to state laws requiring them to report child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, or incest. Program priorities for 2008 include services to individual from low-income families and require that grantees assure access to a broad range of "acceptable and effective" family planning methods and related preventive health services, including natural family planning methods; infertility services and services for adolescents; highly effective contraceptive methods; breast and cervical cancer screening and preventive services; STD and HIV prevention education, counseling, testing, and referral; and adolescent abstinence counseling. The announcement of 2008 program priorities appears in the Federal Register for June 11, 2007, which can be accessed at www.gpoaccess.gov.