The Quickie: PP Tennessee Affiliate Will Receive $3.9 Million in Title X Funding
For Immediate Release: Sept. 27, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: PPTNM to receive millions of dollars in Title X funding, and Kerry Washington discusses the importance of sharing her abortion story.
PPTNM WILL RECEIVE $3.9 MILLION IN TITLE X FUNDING VIA VLPP: Tennesseans will soon be able to receive quality, affordable reproductive health care through Title X again, thanks to a new grant issued by Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, who is sub-granting these funds to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi.
The new grant comes as a result of the Biden Administration’s enforcement of Title X program requirements. As Micaela Watts of the Memphis Commercial Appeal explains, “The state of Tennessee was disqualified from receiving federal Title X funding in April after an audit revealed reproductive healthcare service providers were not in compliance with federal guidelines that stipulate providers must counsel patients on all options available to them in the course of family planning by excluding abortion as an option in the state.”
Ashley Coffield, the president and CEO of PPTNM detailed what this will mean for people in Tennessee, saying “We know how important this funding is for our patients to receive expanded access to quality, affordable care in our communities. All people deserve access to birth control, STI testing and treatment and cancer screenings regardless of where they live or how much money they make.”
Read more at the Memphis Commercial Appeal here.
KERRY WASHINGTON IS READY TO TALK ABOUT HER ABORTION: This week in TIME magazine, award-winning actress Kerry Washington published an excerpt from her memoir where she opens up about her decision to have an abortion in her early 20s, details her abortion procedure, and explains why it’s so important for her to be more vocal about her abortion now.
In an introduction to the excerpt, Washington acknowledges the importance of busting abortion stigma through storytelling, while also emphasizing that each person has the power to decide whether, when, and how to share their stories.
Washington writes: “As I was writing my memoir… I realized how important it is to speak openly about experiences that have been kept in the dark, because when we do so we liberate ourselves and each other.”
Read more at TIME