Months after U.S. officials shut the Tennessee Department of Health out of federal family planning funding over its refusal to include information about abortion in counseling for pregnant patients, Planned Parenthood clinics in the state's three largest cities have secured the funding and begun serving clients.
Clinics in Nashville and Memphis, along with a mobile clinic in Knoxville, have served 375 patients since Nov. 29, when the nonprofit first gained access to nearly $4 million in Title X funds intended to provide a range of reproductive health care to low-income patients, said Ashley Coffield, president of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.
"The state lost the funding because they were not willing to meet patients where they are, particularly pregnant patients who were seeking abortion care," Coffield said Tuesday. "We feel like Planned Parenthood right now, in the environment we are in, is a really safe, nonjudgmental place for patients who need access to family planning services."
The funding covers birth control, HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing and screening for breast and cervical cancer on a free or sliding scale basis for low-income patients. The Title X program has been operating for more than 50 years.
Planned Parenthood clinics are also newly offering vasectomy services in Memphis and Nashville, and telehealth appointments for contraceptive and urinary tract infection consultations, along with home delivery of medications, Coffield said. Patients in 85 of the state's 95 counties have already accessed those services. Planned Parenthood's clinic in Knoxville has yet to reopen after an arson attack in 2021.
In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services disqualified the Tennessee government from receiving an annual $7 million in family planning funding after state officials directed clinics and counselors to eliminate abortion from options discussed with pregnant patients.
(READ MORE: Tennessee's top health official offers no explanation for HIV funding cut)
U.S. rules require Title X recipients to provide counseling on infant care, foster care, adoption and pregnancy termination along with abortion referrals upon request.
Abortion became illegal in Tennessee in August 2022, but federal officials said it was still possible for Tennessee to comply with Title X rules. Patients in Tennessee who wish to terminate their pregnancies are routinely given information on how to obtain out-of-state abortions.
Tennessee is challenging the decision to strip the state of Title X funds, which had flowed to the state Health Department before being redistributed to county health departments and community organizations. On Dec. 1, lawyers for the state filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in federal court seeking to stop U.S. officials from excluding Tennessee from its 2024 disbursements of Title X funding. No hearing date in the case has yet been set.
(READ MORE: Abortion opponents mark closure of Chattanooga's only clinic 28 years ago)
Lawmakers earlier this year also approved more than $9 million in state taxpayer funding to replace the lost federal funding.
Planned Parenthood's renewed access to Title X for patients in Tennessee marks full circle for the organization, which for years was one of the state's main recipients of the funding. The organization's Knoxville and Nashville clinics were stripped of the funding by conservative lawmakers in 2012; Title X funding for its Memphis clinic was axed in 2017.
Federal funds for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state are coming via the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood, which serves as the official grantee of Title X funding from the federal government, which approved the affiliate's plan to issue sub-grants to its Tennessee counterpart.
Read more at TennesseeLookout.com.