The grant from the Department of Health and Human Services went to the Obria Group, a Southern California-based nonprofit that describes itself as being “led by God” and that aims to siphon patients — and money — from Planned Parenthood.
The grant to Obria, which includes $1.7 million in the first year and the prospect of that amount in each of the next two years, represents a fraction of the total amount of family planning money awarded by the department Friday. But both supporters and opponents of abortion rights cast it as a potentially significant move to try to defund medical clinics that provide abortions, such as those affiliated with Planned Parenthood.
The funding comes from Title X, which subsidizes birth control, cancer screenings and other medical care for 4 million low-income patients. While Title X funds do not pay for abortion services as a method of family planning, affiliates of Planned Parenthood, which receive a significant portion of the program’s funds, perform abortions using other funds.
Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services has introduced changes to the program to make it more difficult for clinics that offer abortions to qualify for the funds and, conversely, to make it easier to provide money to faith-based organizations like Obria that oppose abortion rights and certain forms of contraception.
Supporters of abortion rights and contraception have been scrambling to block the changes. Planned Parenthood and states governed by Democrats filed lawsuits this month challenging them, and advocacy groups called for investigations into claims of favoritism toward faith-based organizations and warned that the shift could deprive thousands of at-risk women of critical health care.
The changes to the Title X program and the grant to Obria are part of a broader strategy by the administration and some Republican state officials to use government regulations — and funding — to limit access to abortion and some forms of contraception.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.