By Micaiah Bilger
Life News
Pro-life pregnancy centers looking to expand into women’s medical services soon may have some extra help, thanks to the Trump administration.
The administration’s changes to Title X family planning grants have angered the abortion chain Planned Parenthood, prompting a lawsuit, but they provide hope for life-affirming pregnancy centers. The abortion chain receives about $50 million to $60 million in Title X funds annually, but that could change if the new rules are upheld and other proposals are implemented.
Politico reports pro-life pregnancy centers soon may be competing with Planned Parenthood for those funds.
The report profiled Kathleen Eaton Bravo, founder of the Obria Group, a West Coast chain of pregnancy centers that applied for Title X grants this year.
Bravo said she wants her non-profit to be a life-affirming competitor of Planned Parenthood. Its 30 centers offer pregnancy resources, but many are expanding to provide medical services like prenatal care and STD testing/treatment as well, she said.
A Catholic, Bravo said the Obria centers do not provide artificial birth control, but they do teach methods of natural family planning. Obria programs also emphasize abstinence until marriage, she said.
According to the report:
The federal government rejected Obria this year for Title X family planning grants because, under the current rules, the Trump administration still requires grantees to include a provider that offers hormonal birth control. Obria plans to reapply by partnering with a health center that provides contraception, though not abortion. …
So far [pro-life pregnancy centers] haven’t gotten money from Title X — the $260 million federal family planning program — but that could change under the administration policy now being finalized.
Based in Orange County, Calif., the Obria Group is on the front lines of this trend. Bravo, the founder, calls her clinics a “holistic” and “comprehensive” alternative to Planned Parenthood.
Title X funds are supposed to be used to help low-income women and men receive birth control, cancer screenings and other health care services. While the tax money cannot be used to pay for abortions, it indirectly funds Planned Parenthood’s vast abortion business.
In May, the Trump administration published a new proposal for Title X that would prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving any of those tax dollars unless they completely separate their abortion businesses from their taxpayer-funded services, The Washington Examiner reports. That could mean housing their family planning services in separate buildings with separate staff from their abortion businesses.
The “Protect Life Rule” has not gone into effect yet, but pro-life groups expressed hopethat it will soon. Politico predicted it could happen in the “next month or so.”
The administration’s changes to Title X family planning grants have angered the abortion chain Planned Parenthood, prompting a lawsuit, but they provide hope for life-affirming pregnancy centers. The abortion chain receives about $50 million to $60 million in Title X funds annually, but that could change if the new rules are upheld and other proposals are implemented.
Politico reports pro-life pregnancy centers soon may be competing with Planned Parenthood for those funds.
The report profiled Kathleen Eaton Bravo, founder of the Obria Group, a West Coast chain of pregnancy centers that applied for Title X grants this year.
Bravo said she wants her non-profit to be a life-affirming competitor of Planned Parenthood. Its 30 centers offer pregnancy resources, but many are expanding to provide medical services like prenatal care and STD testing/treatment as well, she said.
“I didn’t recreate the wheel,” Bravo said. “I’m using Planned Parenthood’s model, and it’s working.”Bravo’s work comes from the heart. She had an abortion 38 years ago, and deeply regrets taking her unborn child’s life, according to the report. She now works to help empower women to make better choices for themselves and their babies.
A Catholic, Bravo said the Obria centers do not provide artificial birth control, but they do teach methods of natural family planning. Obria programs also emphasize abstinence until marriage, she said.
According to the report:
The federal government rejected Obria this year for Title X family planning grants because, under the current rules, the Trump administration still requires grantees to include a provider that offers hormonal birth control. Obria plans to reapply by partnering with a health center that provides contraception, though not abortion. …
So far [pro-life pregnancy centers] haven’t gotten money from Title X — the $260 million federal family planning program — but that could change under the administration policy now being finalized.
Based in Orange County, Calif., the Obria Group is on the front lines of this trend. Bravo, the founder, calls her clinics a “holistic” and “comprehensive” alternative to Planned Parenthood.
“There’s a huge need for women’s health care, and everybody doesn’t have to do it the same way,” she told Politico.Some already are criticizing the effort, though. NARAL, which calls itself “pro-choice,” has a long history of attacking non-profits that promote choices other than abortion.
“Their core is as a ‘fake’ women’s health center,” Amy Everitt of NARAL California told the news outlet.Other abortion activists have criticized pro-life facilities for not being “comprehensive” health care providers because they refuse to provide or promote abortions. Killing unborn babies in abortions is not health care, but the abortion industry is trying to convince the public that it is.
Title X funds are supposed to be used to help low-income women and men receive birth control, cancer screenings and other health care services. While the tax money cannot be used to pay for abortions, it indirectly funds Planned Parenthood’s vast abortion business.
In May, the Trump administration published a new proposal for Title X that would prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving any of those tax dollars unless they completely separate their abortion businesses from their taxpayer-funded services, The Washington Examiner reports. That could mean housing their family planning services in separate buildings with separate staff from their abortion businesses.
The “Protect Life Rule” has not gone into effect yet, but pro-life groups expressed hopethat it will soon. Politico predicted it could happen in the “next month or so.”
