Estimating the Impact of Changes in the Title X Network on Patient Capacity

Abstract / Summary

This memo presents key findings, methodological details and limitations for an analysis of the impact of the Trump administration’s March 2019 overhaul of the regulations governing the Title X national family planning program, regulations collectively known as the “domestic gag rule.” The analysis draws primarily on information from the Office of Population Affairs’ (OPA) directories of Title X–supported clinic sites and data collected by the Guttmacher Institute as part of its 2015 census of publicly funded family planning clinics, supplemented by data from OPA’s 2018 Family Planning Annual Report (FPAR). This memo provides national and state-level estimates of the number of clinics that have likely left the Title X network because of the gag rule, the number of female patients who had been provided with contraceptive services by clinics that left the network and the resulting reduction in the Title X network’s capacity to serve female contraceptive patients. This memo does not address the impact on or fate of clinics that have withdrawn from the Title X network. Most continue to serve patients, but more research will be needed to fully understand the range of consequences that will likely be felt by clinics and patients for years to come.

Read the full memo here.