Trump administration freezes $8M in family planning health care grants for low-income Tennesseans

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and Northern Mississippi was notified Monday the organization lost $8 million after Title X grants were suspended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo: Angela Dennis)

The Trump administration on Monday abruptly suspended an estimated $8 million in federal grant funding that provides family planning, cancer screenings and preventative health care to low-income Tennesseans.

More than 30,000 Tennesseans have accessed healthcare through the impacted organizations since late 2023.

Planned Parenthood announced that nine of its affiliates — including the affiliate that funds Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi — were notified that funding under the Title X grant program is suspended until further notice. 

A spokesperson for the  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated Tuesday that it is “concerned about the compliance of several awardees” receiving a combined $27.5 million in Title X funds. The department is assessing all Title X grant recipients for compliance with federal law and President Donald Trump’s executive orders. No final determinations have been made.

The Title X program has supported affordable basic health care, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and cancer screening for more than 50 years, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi President and CEO Ashley Coffield said Tuesday.

Withdrawing Title X funds will drive up costs for people who already face barriers to access health care, she said.

“We’re going to hang on as long as we can and provide the care without having the reimbursement,” Coffield said. 

Trump administration targets Planned Parenthood’s family-planning grants

The notice of suspension also went to Mississippi-based organization Converge, Inc., which began receiving Title X funds in 2023 to provide Tennesseans with low- and no-cost reproductive health care. Converge has served nearly 12,000 patients through 33 health centers in Tennessee, according to the organization.

In a letter to Converge, HHS cited Converge’s public statement, “Our Commitment to Addressing Systemic Racism,” as grounds for compliance review based on civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin.

The department is also assessing compliance with executive orders, including President Donald Trump’s “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders” order barring publicly funded benefits to people without legal immigration status.

“Every day that there is a delay in Title X funding is a day that patients across Mississippi and Tennessee go without care,” Converge Co-founder Jamie Bardwell stated. “This will create a cascading effect across the South, disrupting access to basic health care services … These disruptions will lead to increased negative health outcomes, including higher rates of unintended pregnancy and STIs.”

HHS did not share a timeline for its compliance reviews. 

Converge will “comply with the requests outlined by HHS and demonstrate our adherence to this administration’s orders,” Bardwell stated. “People’s lives depend on it.”

Real people’s lives are going to suffer’

Title X funding has been distributed to the two organizations after the Tennessee Department of Health was kicked out of the program for violating the conditions of the grant by refusing to provide patients with “non-directive” counseling that included abortion after the state instituted an abortion ban. The state health department previously received roughly $8 million from the program.

In the 16 months that the organization has received grant funding, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi has served 21,989 patients and logged 22,263 visits in Tennessee, Coffield said. The organization provides care on a sliding fee scale based on family size and income.

Planned Parenthood received $3.8 million last year to provide services in Tennessee, according to Coffield. Converge received just under $8.4 million in fiscal year 2024 to provide services in Mississippi and Tennessee, HHS records show.

The Title X grant funding cycle was slated to end March 31, with renewals beginning April 1. In previous years, organizations would have been told weeks in advance what funding level to expect for the coming year, Coffield said. Instead, they got the letter informing them of the funding freeze — the first correspondence they’ve received under Trump’s second administration.

CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health, a Converge sub-grantee, operates a walk-in clinic in Memphis providing birth control, emergency contraception, confirmation of pregnancy and options counseling and HIV testing, in addition to other testing and treatment services.

“CHOICES is heartbroken to have lost critical Title X funding—funding that provides essential family planning and wellness services that are especially important in places like Tennessee, where we face a total abortion ban and an utter lack of maternal health care services,” President and CEO Jennifer Pepper stated, pledging to fighting for patient care.

Coffield said the freeze is causing unnecessary chaos, confusion and anxiety for patients.

“It seems like the Trump administration and Elon Musk are appeasing their anti-abortion backers and targeting basic health care that has nothing to do with abortion,” she said. “Real people’s lives are going to suffer as a result.”

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi will work to continue providing affordable care without support from Title X funding in the event of permanent loss.

“We will do everything that we can to continue to help people get the care that they need, that it’s affordable, that they have the freedom to choose to come to the provider of their choice, and that they’re not forced out of getting basic care by the Trump administration and Elon Musk,” Coffield said.