Rep. Chu Joins the Democratic Women’s Caucus & Reproductive Freedom Caucus in Urging HHS to Fund Title X Grants to Protect Critical Reproductive Care After Significant Delay

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, March 16, Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), Chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) Reproductive Health Care Task Force and Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus (RFC) Contraception Task Force, joined DWC Whip Nikema Williams (GA-05), RFC Vice Chair Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), and DWC and RFC members Sharice Davids (KS-03) and Dina Titus (NV-01) in leading 128 Members in sending a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 

The letter urges HHS to extend Title X grants that provide critical family planning funding to health care centers nationwide after months of delayed guidance from the agency. 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, Rep. Chu and fellow 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.

The members explained that Title X funding is critical to providing high-quality family planning and sexual health care, detailed how the failure to extend Title X funding is yet another example of Republicans attacking essential reproductive health care, and urged HHS to extend funding to protect essential health care.

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, 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.