HHS issues $6 million in grants for reproductive health and research

Photo: Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Office of Population Affairs, has announced more than $6 million for Title X Family Planning Research grants, Research-to-Practice Center grants and Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Evaluation and Research grants, as part of its work to protect and expand access to reproductive healthcare.

The funding is intended to improve service delivery, promote the adoption of healthy behaviors and reduce existing health disparities.

It is among many actions taken by HHS to ensure reproductive health services following the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Title X Family Planning Research grants aim to conduct research or analyses to generate information that will improve the delivery of family planning services and expand equitable access to quality sexual and reproductive health services offered under Title X of the Public Health Service Act.

Five research organizations have received a total of $2.8 million.

The Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Research Grant projects explore new questions in teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent sexual and reproductive health to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of these programs for adolescents or young adults, and to reduce existing disparities.

Funded grantees will conduct research or analyses to generate information that will:

• Identify factors that improve the quality, access and equity of teen pregnancy prevention programs for adolescents or young adults, or that reduce existing disparities.
• Identify and/or validate core program components or "active ingredients" essential for teen pregnancy prevention programs and practices to produce the desired outcomes
• Scale and conduct testing of emerging adolescent sexual health innovations in order to generate early data and prepare for future rigorous impact evaluation.

Four organizations have received $1.2 million.

The Research-to-Practice Center Grants projects will synthesize and translate existing research into practice to improve adolescent health and can ultimately help reduce teen pregnancy. Projects will focus on expanding the delivery of trauma-informed and inclusive practices in adolescent sexual and reproductive health programming and care. They will concentrate on bringing adolescent sexual and reproductive health research to youth-serving professionals.

Two organizations have received $2.1 million.

THE LARGER TREND

Since the Supreme Court decision, HHS has taken several actions to ensure patient access to reproductive healthcare and to give hospitals and physicians guidance on abortions in emergency care. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act protects providers when they are offering legally-mandated, life-saving or health-saving abortion services as stabilizing care for emergency medical conditions, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told providers in a July letter.

Becerra and CMS Administrator Brooks-LaSure issued a letter to U.S. governors inviting them to work with CMS and apply for Medicaid 1115 waivers to provide increased access to care for women from states where reproductive rights are under attack who may be denied medical care. 

HHS issued a proposed rule that would strengthen the regulations interpreting the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act and would reinforce that discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or related conditions. 

HHS issued guidance to roughly 60,000 U.S. retail pharmacies clarifying their obligations under federal civil rights laws. 

HHS announced nearly $3 million in new funding to bolster training and technical assistance for the nationwide network of Title X family planning providers.

HHS issued guidance to clarify protections for birth control coverage under the ACA. Under the ACA, most private health plans are required to provide birth control and family planning counseling at no additional cost. 

ON THE RECORD

"These new research grants will provide insights that will help our community partners provide essential, client-centered reproductive health services," said ADM Rachel L. Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health.
 
"We are pleased to fund new and innovative research that will enhance the work of our grantees working to provide critical reproductive health services across the U.S.," said Jessica Swafford Marcella, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs and Director of the Office of Adolescent Health.

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org