Senators Hassan, Shaheen Demand HHS Immediately Release Title X Funding

(Washington, DC) - U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) are urging U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take immediate action to protect Americans' uninterrupted access to comprehensive family planning and services by awarding a one-year full funding extension for all current Title X grantees. The letter to Secretary Kennedy was led by U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Angus King (I-ME) and supported by 34 Senate Democrats.

Last year, the Trump Administration withheld millions in funding from certain Title X grantees for months, placing over 840,000 people at risk of losing access to Title X-funded care and forcing some sites to close. While the administration restored funding by December 2025, many grantees were forced to serve the same need with dramatically reduced resources. Now, Title X grantees' current funding is set to lapse on March 31, 2026.

The Senators wrote: "For nearly 60 years, the Title X Family Planning Program ("Title X") has provided millions of working Americans with access to family planning and essential preventive care services, like cancer screenings. Congress recently renewed its longstanding support for the program in the latest funding package. But under your leadership, the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has so far failed to release annual funding for Title X clinics across the country, as it ordinarily would have by this point in the year. Existing awards are set to lapse on March 31, 2026, and any loss of congressionally appropriated Title X funding will hurt millions of patients and significantly weaken communities' access to comprehensive family planning services."

They continued: "If the administration fails to meet the April 1, 2026, deadline for releasing Title X funding to the current grantees, the repercussions for critical health care will be catastrophic. Any gap in Title X funding could result in over two million patients losing access to contraception and preventative care, worsen maternal health outcomes, and increase sexually transmitted infections. It will also risk layoffs of essential health care providers and staff who provide care for patients at thousands of Title X clinics nationwide, worsening the national maternal and reproductive health care crisis."

They concluded: "This delay is already causing costly uncertainty for clinics across the country and the patients that they serve. A lapse in funding caused by this administration would deny patients and their families the dignity of affordable health care and irreparably worsen the health care crisis that President Trump and Republicans in Congress have already exacerbated by enacting the largest cuts to health care in American history. It is imperative that the Department act now and issue a one-year extension of Title X funding."

The full text of the letter can be found here.

Senator Shaheen is an unrelenting advocate for women's reproductive rights. For years, Shaheen has fought to expand coverage of women's preventative care, including through her legislation to reduce the cost of contraception for servicewomen and dependents in military families.

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