Congresswoman Nikema Williams, Dem Women’s Caucus, & Reproductive Freedom Caucus Urge HHS to Fund Title X Grants to Protect Critical Reproductive Care After Significant Delay

WASHINGTON, DC – On Monday, March 16, Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Whip Nikema Williams (GA-05), Reproductive Freedom Caucus (RFC) Vice Chair Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), DWC Reproductive Health Care Task Force and Liaison Judy Chu (CA-28), and DWC & RFC members Sharice Davids (KS-03) and Dina Titus (NV-01) led 128 Members of the DWC and RFC in a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy urging him to extend Title X grants that provide critical family planning funding to health care centers across the country after HHS failed to provide guidance for months. Title X-funded health centers are lifelines in their communities, providing high-quality family planning and sexual health care, including cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing, contraceptive services and supplies, pregnancy testing, and other essential health care services.

In their letter, the members demand that HHS immediately award a one-year full funding extension to all current Title X grantees. This extension is critical because HHS failed to release the funding guidelines for months, only to release them late last Friday and give applicants only one week to submit their materials. HHS’s rushed approach could delay critical funding to grantees.

In their letter, the Members explained that Title X funding is critical to providing high-quality family planning and sexual health care:

“The bipartisan Title X program, championed by then-Congressman George H.W. Bush and signed into law by President Nixon, served 2.8 million people in 2023. For many of those patients, especially in rural and underserved communities, Title X health centers are their only source of health care. In 2023 alone, Title X supported 3,853 health centers across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories and performed 461,085 cervical cancer screenings. These screenings have helped lower cervical cancer rates by more than half since the mid 1970s.  Without timely access to the Year 5 funding of grants they have already been awarded, Title X clinics will be left without the needed support to continue to provide these screenings, contraceptive supplies, and other critical services.”

The Members also detailed how the failure to extend Title X funding is yet another example of Republicans attacking essential reproductive health care:

“The failure to release guidance and open applications on time is yet another example of this administration’s ongoing assault on the Title X program, birth control, and reproductive health care access more broadly. In March 2025, HHS illegally withheld $65.8 million in Congressionally appropriated funding for the Title X program from 16 grantees with grants in 23 states, threatening essential health care access for an estimated 842,000 people, or 30 percent of all Title X patients. Many of these affected grantees still struggle to sustain the financial burden caused by that extended delay in funding. The attacks on reproductive health care from this administration and congressional Republicans continued with an estimated 15 million Americans poised to lose health insurance under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Republicans’ failure to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, and a budget proposal and partisan spending bill for FY2026 that sought to eliminate the Title X program entirely.”

The Members closed by urging HHS to extend funding to protect essential health care:

“Undermining Title X will unquestionably result in the loss of health care for patients who depend on it. Title X grantees were already awarded these funds. Those who rely on these services should not be punished by HHS’s inadequate planning. We urge you to award all Title X grantees a full funding extension for the next year before April 1. Do not stifle the life-saving work of Title X-funded centers that have helped women and families across our country for decades.”

Read the full letter from Members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and Reproductive Freedom Caucus here.

In addition to letter leads Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Whip Nikema Williams, Reproductive Freedom Caucus (RFC) Vice Chair Lizzie Fletcher, DWC Reproductive Health Care Task Force and Liaison Judy Chu, and DWC & RFC members Sharice Davids, and Dina Titus, the letter was signed by Alma Adams, Pete Aguilar, Yassamin Ansari, Jake Auchincloss, Becca Balint, Nanette Barragán, Joyce Beatty, Wesley Bell, Donald Beyer, Suzanne Bonamici, Julia Brownley, Shontel Brown, Salud Carbajal, André Carson, Troy Carter, Greg Casar, Ed Case, Sean Casten, Gilbert Cisneros, Katherine Clark, Steve Cohen, Angie Craig, Jasmine Crockett, Danny Davis, Madeleine Dean, Diana DeGette, Suzan DelBene, Christopher Deluzio, Mark DeSaulnier, Maxine Dexter, Debbie Dingell, Lloyd Doggett, Sarah Elfreth, Veronica Escobar, Bill Foster, Valerie Foushee, Maxwell Frost, Jesús García, Sylvia Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Josh Gottheimer, Adelita Grijalva, Jahana Hayes, Pablo Hernández, James Himes, Steven Horsford, Chrissy Houlahan, Jared Huffman, Glenn Ivey, Jonathan Jackson, Sara Jacobs, Henry Johnson, Julie Johnson, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, William Keating, Robin Kelly, Timothy Kennedy, Ro Khanna, Greg Landsman, George Latimer, Summer Lee, Susie Lee, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Ted Lieu, Stephen Lynch, John Mannion, Doris Matsui, Lucy McBath, April McClain Delaney, Jennifer McClellan, Betty McCollum, Morgan McGarvey, James McGovern, Gregory Meeks, Robert Menendez, Grace Meng, Kweisi Mfume, Dave Min, Gwen Moore, Joseph Morelle, Kelly Morrison, Seth Moulton, Kevin Mullin, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Johnny Olszewski, Chris Pappas, Nancy Pelosi, Brittany Pettersen, Chellie Pingree, Mark Pocan, Nellie Pou, Ayanna Pressley, Delia Ramirez, Emily Randall, Deborah Ross, Patrick Ryan, Andrea Salinas, Mary Gay Scanlon, Janice Schakowsky, Bradley Schneider, Hillary Scholten, Terri Sewell, Lateefah Simon, Melanie Stansbury, Greg Stanton, Haley Stevens, Marilyn Strickland, Suhas Subramanyam, Eric Swalwell, Emilia Sykes, Mark Takano, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Paul Tonko, Ritchie Torres, Lori Trahan, Gabe Vasquez, Nydia Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nikema Williams, and Frederica Wilson.