Dear Representative: 

The undersigned organizations committed to women's reproductive health and rights strongly urge you to oppose an amendment Representative David Vitter (R-LA) may offer to the FY 2002 Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill that would undermine the Title X (ten) family planning program. The amendment would prohibit private organizations that provide abortions with non-Title X funds from receiving funds under Title X of the Public Health Service Act. This endangers low-income women's health, threatens the Title X family planning clinic network, and disregards current prohibitions on abortion-related activities in projects that receive Title X funds. 

For more than three decades, the Title X family planning program has been a crucial component of our health care system, providing contraceptive services and other preventive health care to millions of Americans each year, most of whom are low income and uninsured and otherwise would lack access to such services. Title X clinics are at the forefront of efforts to reduce rates of unintended pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and breast and cervical cancers, and their impact has been enormous. Last year alone, Title X services enabled women to avoid one million unintended pregnancies, nearly half of which would have ended in abortion. Clinics cannot use, nor have they ever used, Title X funds for abortions. 

As proposed, the Vitter amendment would disqualify "any private grantee, delegate, or clinic that provides chemical or surgical abortion" with non-Title X funds from receiving a grant or contract to provide contraception and other preventive health care under the Title X program. It would defund an estimated 600 hospitals and other established health care providers that currently participate in the Title X program, cutting off nearly one million low-income women-more than one in five women who receive Title X services-from their family planning provider. Many of these women-particularly those who live in rural areas-could face tremendous difficulty obtaining these services elsewhere. Ironically, restricting the availability of Title X services could very well increase rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion. 

Moreover, while the Vitter amendment would prohibit private entities that perform abortions from receiving Title X funds, it would not prevent those same health care providers from receiving other types of federal grants, such as funding for immunizations or to provide services to pregnant women. This inconsistency exposes the true motive behind the amendment: to restrict access to family planning services and cripple the family planning clinic network. Finally, the amendment imposes an unconstitutional condition on non-Title X dollars, since it bars entities that engage in lawful and constitutionally protected activities with their own funds from receiving Title X dollars and does not simply refuse to fund those activities. 

We strongly urge you to oppose the Vitter amendment, a misguided policy that threatens the health and well-being of low-income women nationwide who may have nowhere else to go if their local Title X clinic no longer has the resources to provide crucial preventive health services. 

Sincerely, 

Advocates for Youth
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association of University Women
American Civil Liberties Union
American College of Nurse Midwives
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American Medical Women's Association
American Nurses Association
American Public Health Association
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
Center for Women Policy Studies
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Choice USA
Girls Incorporated
League of Women Voters of the United States
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL)
National Abortion Federation
National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health
National Council of Jewish Women
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Network for Youth
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women's Health Network
National Women's Law Center
People for the American Way
Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)
Society for Adolescent Medicine
The Alan Guttmacher Institute
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Voters for Choice
Zero Population Growth