Power to Decide Dismayed By Critical Program Eliminations In President’s Budget

(Washington, D.C.)—Power to Decide, the campaign to prevent unplanned pregnancy, is dismayed that the President’s budget for fiscal year 2019 severely cuts or eliminates the following programs critical to ensuring that all young people have the power to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant: 

• Prohibits those covered by Medicaid or receiving services through the Title X program from accessing high quality family planning providers, including Planned Parenthood. 
• Proposes a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and changes to Medicaid that could result in fewer people having health coverage, and as a result coverage for contraception. 
• Eliminates the evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program, currently funded at $101 million annually. 

“The cuts in the President’s budget are harmful to young people and women of all ages. They will severely restrict access to quality health services, including contraception, as well as access to evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs for hundreds of thousands of youth,” said Ginny Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer, Power to Decide. “These cuts would threaten the historic progress the nation has made in reducing rates of unplanned pregnancy. We urge Congress to work with the President to restore funding for these programs at their current levels in order to ensure that all young people have the information and access to services they need to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant.” 

Power to Decide applauds the fact that the proposed budget provides level funding for the Title X Family Planning Program at $286 million. The proposed budget does include $75 million annually for both the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and state abstinence education grants. However, the budget proposes shifting programs like PREP and the state abstinence grants from mandatory to discretionary funding. 

Power to Decide is a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization that works to ensure all people—no matter who they are, where they live, or what their economic status might be—have the power to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant. Please visit us at www.PowerToDecide.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.