MEMORANDUM (PDF)
From: Equity Forward
To: Interested Parties
Date: June 18, 2019
Re: What’s Missing from HHS’ Title X Testimony
Tomorrow, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on the Trump administration’s systematic efforts to undermine Title X, the nation’s family planning program.
Diane Foley, an anti-abortion zealot, will testify on behalf of the administration. (For more background on Foley, visit equityfwd.org/diane-foley.) The committee just released Foley’s prepared testimony, and the most noteworthy thing about it is what she’s choosing not to say.
In almost 2,000 words of testimony on family planning, Foley chose to barely mention vital aspects of family planning and wellness, such as:
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Condom: 0
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Contraception or contraceptives: 2
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Birth control: 0
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Sexually transmitted disease or sexually transmitted infection: 2
Yet, in a nod to her obsession with taking away women’s rights, she mentioned abortion 22 times. It’s clear that Foley is singularly focused on abortion and taking away women’s rights — at the expense of important work her office should be doing to promote family planning.
While she did discuss abortion at length, here are five major issues related to Title X that she didn’t address:
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The destructiveness of HHS’ move to finalize the domestic “gag rule,” which would bar Title X providers from mentioning abortion to their patients and require health clinics to show that abortion services are physically and financially separated from Title X-funded family planning services.
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HHS removing “birth control” and “contraception” from Title X grant guidelines in order to promote less effective and so-called “natural” family planning methods, including doubling down on abstinence, “sexual risk avoidance,” “fertility awareness-based methods of family planning” and “fostering interaction with community and faith-based organizations.”
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HHS further politicizing the program by giving anti-reproductive health political appointees final approval of grant awards instead of allowing traditional non-political regional health administrators to make these decisions.
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HHS making it easier for anti-abortion organizations to apply for grants (and even awarding one extremist organization that does not provide any forms of birth control and advertises medically unproven “abortion reversals” more than $5 million this year), while simultaneously diverting funding from five Planned Parenthoods.
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HHS attempting to divert Title X funds from traditional health care providers to both faith-based clinics that offer very limited services, and — as learned through public record requests — to state health departments, with which HHS political appointees have coordinated to likely control program implementation.
The simple fact is that the Trump administration has empowered fringe figures like Foley to put their beliefs ahead of Americans’ health and well-being. There have been few consequences for the HHS officials pursuing these policies. Tomorrow’s hearing is the first opportunity to turn the tables and hold HHS responsible for its dangerous views.
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