Decreasing the unintended pregnancy rate was a bipartisan wish. In 1969, President Richard Nixon recognized that “unwanted or untimely childbearing is one of several forces which are driving many families into poverty.” A year later, Congress passed Title X: the first federal program entirely dedicated to family planning and reproductive health care.
It would go on to become one of the most successful federal programs of the last century, with one study finding it prevented some 20 million unintended pregnancies in just 20 of its 50 years by providing women with free and low-cost birth control. It has significantly reduced child poverty.
But President Trump seems intent on killing Title X. This month, the Department of Health and Human Services quietly issued new funding guidelines that have effectively subverted the program’s entire purpose. [I]t appears to cater to three influential parts of the Trump coalition: The anti-abortion movement; the MAHA … movement; and pronatalists who want to see birthrates rise at nearly any cost.
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Not satisfied with the end of legal abortion in America, the anti-abortion movement seems poised to end the era of affordable contraception.
