Planned Parenthood presses Virginia to restore state funding for contraception program

Virginia’s Planned Parenthood clinics are urging lawmakers to move a key contraception access program back to state funding as uncertainty grows around federal health care support. 

Despite currently being state funded, the budget introduced by former Gov. Glenn Youngkin which is yet to be finalized by the state legislature, shifted the Virginia Contraceptive Access Initiative to a federal funding stream known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

“During most of the last administration, it was not an issue that these were TANF funds. But now the circumstances have changed,” said Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Director Jamie Lockhart on Monday from Richmond’s East End clinic.

It was one of the organization’s facilities to lose Title X funding for much of last year amid a federal funding freeze and now faces a gap in receiving it this year as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opened a late and condensed grant application window. 

The current funding cycle, for instance, runs out on April 1. Though Virginia’s Planned Parenthood clinics have applied, Lockhart is not optimistic about the sustained future of federal assistance for reproductive health care. 

Established in 1970, Title X helps low and extremely low-income people access family planning services such as contraception, sexually transmitted disease screenings and treatment, as well as cancer screenings, at low or no cost.

Title X does not fund abortions, but reproductive health care — ranging from abortions to contraception to in vitro fertilization — has come under fresh scrutiny in recent years since the United States Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections. 

Since Congress passed a reconciliation bill dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last summer, Medicaid patients have been barred from using their insurance at clinics that provide abortions, including Planned Parenthood. 

Dr. Shanthi Ramesh called it a “convergence of challenges.” 

As chief medical officer for Virginia’s Planned Parenthood, she oversees a range of services, from providing abortions to administering contraception to conducting screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and cancers.

With instability surrounding Title X funding and now the loss of Medicaid coverage, Ramesh said some patients are struggling to afford care or stay on top of treatment. 

The impact can be especially burdensome for patients who rely on contraception to manage long-term health conditions such as endometriosis or polycystic ovarian syndrome. It is also particularly challenging for patients trying to prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS by accessing medications and receiving routine checkups. 

“It’s so hard to communicate with patients: ‘a visit that you had paid for a year ago? Now you don’t, and now you do, but we’re going to probably lose that again,’” Ramesh said. “It’s really hard for them to plan around that.”

As VACI focuses on contraception, Ramesh said the program has helped shield the state from steeper declines seen in other states over the past year. 

She said Virginia clinics have seen a 40% drop in preventative care services such as breast exams, Pap tests, and HPV tests. By comparison, the use of long-acting contraception such as IUDs and implants declined by 14%, while use of  oral contraceptives remained steady. 

VACI is an $8 million investment over two years — the cycle on which state budgets operate — and Planned Parenthood is asking for a $1.2 million increase next year to offset losses tied to the reconciliation bill, which has driven heavier reliance on the program among some patients.

The request comes as state lawmakers are already weighing how to absorb other health-related impacts of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Current budget proposals include investments in social services departments to comply with changes to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility rules and to prevent, where possible, people from losing assistance. 

Lawmakers are also considering funding a state-level Affordable Care Act subsidy after Congress earlier this year declined to renew federal support — another effort aimed at preventing coverage losses.

“We’ve never had this much of an onus on the state before,” Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, previously told The Mercury. “It will take a lot of work with the people, processes and systems to go with that.”

As chair of the House of Delegates Health and Human Services Committee, Willett has helped advance legislation and budget proposals to Gov. Abigail Spanberger ahead of lawmakers’ return next month to wrap up remaining work from the 2026 legislative session. 

While directing TANF funding toward VACI was a holdover from Youngkin’s administration, Lockhart said she’s been in contact with state lawmakers about making adjustments. 

“We’ve been told, in various ways, that they hope to fix that,” she said. ”But recognize right that they have a lot of things that they’re figuring out.” 

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