Trump administration restores Utah family planning funds

Utah's sole grant recipient said the Trump administration released $2 million in Title X funds, restoring family planning money that was frozen for months and led to the shutdown of two Planned Parenthood facilities.

After receiving the 2025 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Population Affairs late last week, the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah said Monday it may begin offering free or subsidized reproductive health services to low-income patients.

The financing follows nearly nine months without government funds, which caused Planned Parenthood to close facilities in Logan and St. George, the farthest from Salt Lake City and most accessible to rural residents. One-quarter of the organization's Utah clinics were there.

The restored grant is $2 million, down from $2.8 million in 2024. Utah was one of seven states in which all Title X funds were banned, per KFF Health News. Only Utah's Planned Parenthood Association provides Title X.

Title X, passed in 1970, provides low-income Americans with family planning, cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing. It is illegal to utilize the funds for abortions.

Restoring Title X funding to Utah for now allows more Utahns to receive vital family-planning services, said president and CEO Shireen Ghorbani. She listed “birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing” as grant-supported services.

About 26,000 Utahns use Title X, according to Ghorbani. She added that many patients paid more or went without care during the freeze.

Ghorbani said, “But we cannot ignore the fact that too many Utahns have already felt the devastating effects” of the budget cutoff, calling it “unwarranted.”

The organization worries about the program's future. Whether Utah will receive the grant in future years is questionable, Ghorbani said.

Planned Parenthood Association of Utah is appealing a federal law that prohibits Medicaid patients from using its clinics. The Utah Legislature has tried to outlaw abortion clinics and sex education in schools.

Utah law allows abortion up to 18 weeks, but state courts are considering a near-total ban. That case's next hearing is in April.

Even though the reinstated Title X monies may not last long, clinics can reopen and reunite people with preventive and reproductive health care.

‍