What Happens When Title X vanishes?
By Ayana Bradshaw, President & CEO
Care Can’t Wait! This is our organization’s theme as 2025 comes to a close and we approach the nine-month mark from when our Title X funding was withheld with just one day’s notice. Eight months ago, our organization, AccessMatters, faced one of the most difficult moments in its history. On March 31, 2025, we were informed that our anchor source of support, the Title X grant, which we have received for more than 50 years, was being withheld. This sudden loss not only threatened our operations, but also the 20+ healthcare provider organizations managing the 75 health centers and clinics that depend on us to disburse these funds, and the close to 62,000 people across the Southeastern Pennsylvania region who rely on this support for essential health care each year.
Before explaining what this means for our organization, it is important to understand why we say care can’t wait, and to recognize the real impact this sudden loss of funding had on community members who rely on its services.
For four months, AccessMatters endured this loss of funding and the consequences were immediate and deeply personal. While it’s easy to frame the impact in broad, anecdotal terms, here is what the withholding period truly meant for people in our region:
- Health centers and clinics that rely on these funds to keep their doors open suddenly had to scramble to keep staff employed.
- People who once received low-cost or free contraception were faced with paying full price, forcing some to decide between preventing pregnancy and putting food on the table – a choice no one should have to make.
- Health centers and clinics shortened their hours, meaning someone who needed an appointment after work no longer had access to care.
- A patient who relied on a sliding fee scale to pay for healthcare learned that it was no longer available.
- The potential for a person who felt a lump in their breast or chest to forego care after learning they may have to pay out of pocket for an evaluation.
These are the real consequences that we saw this year. This is what happens when the safety net collapses. Care can’t wait!
As President and CEO, I had been with the organization for only four months when this occurred. I was energized by our future, our commitment to expanding family planning services, and our dedication to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. The abrupt withholding of the Title X Family Planning grant halted that momentum in an instant.
For those unfamiliar with Title X, it is the only federal program that covers family planning services. These include services such as birth control and fertility awareness information, STI/HIV testing and treatment, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and much more. Often, this is the first point of entry for individuals who later learn they have other health conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. It is not simply a program. It is a gateway to broader health care, a connector to other critical services, and a true safety net for our communities.
The withholding of this funding revealed far more than an interruption of services. It exposed how quickly people, families, and entire communities can be placed at risk without these essential supports. Patients lose access to care and the ripple effects are profound and lasting.
I am sharing this because the significance of access to family planning services is too great to overlook. While we are grateful that the funds were eventually restored in late summer, this experience made one thing clear: Care Can’t Wait – and we must do everything in our power to protect and sustain this safety net, regardless of future funding shifts. Our community depends on it.
This affects you, me, and all of us. We are one community, and together we have the power to ensure that essential care is never taken away again.
Care Can’t Wait!
Give today, because AccessMatters!