Statement on Freezing Title X Funding

The Trump administration has announced the freezing of allocated federal Title X family planning funds to Maine, along with 8 other states. It is the Administration’s latest attack among many against the health of women and low-income people.

Title X provides backbone funding for reproductive health in Maine and across the nation. It is the only federal funding for comprehensive family planning, birth control, and reproductive health care screening - and it’s elimination robs Mainers of two million dollars in Congressionally-approved resources to care for the health of our people. Without this funding, there will be less access for low-income Mainers to STI testing and treatment, birth control, cancer screening, and more, creating a cascade of harm across our State.

This is also the latest signal of how cavalier this Administration is about the lives and bodies of women and girls, queer and trans people, and anyone who challenges the gender status quo. In every week of his Presidency, Donald Trump has announced new ways to attack, control, or harm marginalized and vulnerable communities, especially women and girls. He has unlawfully eliminated US AID which will result in the death of millions of women and their children across the globe; the scaling back of civil rights programs which investigate workplace sexual harassment and violence; freezing of grants to support vital sexual and domestic violence programs; and now the freezing of Title X, which will result in increased rates of cancer, unintended pregnancy, STIs, and more. In every way, this President has shown himself to ignore the lives and worth of women.

It is more important than ever that the Maine Legislature pass LD 143, which will help fund family planning services in Maine. And it is more important than ever that we call upon Senator Collins, the Chair of the Senate’s budget commmittee, to demand the restoration of Congress’s funding priorities.