What Are Title X Family Planning Clinics?
Title X family planning clinics—funded by the HHS Office of Population Affairs—are a critical part of the health care safety net in the United States. The Title X program is the only domestic program dedicated to family planning, providing holistic and preventive services primarily to clients who have low income or lack health insurance. For many clients, Title X services are the only ongoing source of health care and health education. Title X clinics are a trusted source of health information in communities. Clinic service providers work with their clients to help them make the best decisions for themselves.
What does a Title X clinic look like, and where can you find one?
There are more than 4,000 Title X clinics across the country. These clinics operate as:
- State and local health departments
- University health clinics
- Federally Qualified Health Centers
- Hospital-based sites
- Community-based health centers
- Private non-profit health centers
Who works at a Title X clinic?
Title X clinics are staffed by:
- Clinical service providers,
- Nurse practitioners,
- Certified nurse midwives,
- Physician assistants,
- Physicians,
- Registered nurses,
- Medical assistants, and
- Health educators.
What services can you receive at a Title X clinic?
The Title X program ensures access to a broad range of acceptable and effective family planning and preventive health services. These services include client-centered counseling on achieving pregnancy, preventing pregnancy, and helping people to attain their desired number and spacing of children. Title X clinics also offer services for detecting cancers early, preventing disease transmission, and avoiding adverse health consequences. They provide:
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Pregnancy prevention (e.g., birth control) and birth spacing counseling,
- Pregnancy testing and counseling,
- Assistance to achieve pregnancy,
- Breast cancer and cervical cancer screening services, and
- Sexually transmitted infection (STI) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services.
Who visits a Title X clinic?
In 2022, 2.6 million Title X clients had more than 4 million clinic visits. Title X providers served nearly 1 million more clients in 2022 compared to 2021.
- Almost 20% of clients visited a Title X clinic located in the southeast (HHS Region IV: Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee).
- Nearly 9 out of 10 Title X clients were female.
- More than half of all clients were younger than 30.
How are Title X clinics innovating to better serve adolescents and young adults?
OPA embeds innovation values and methods in all we do, but we especially promote it in the Title X family planning program.
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Illinois Department of Public Health works with the Department of Public Health’s Adolescent Health Program to directly support school-based health centers and increase access to high-quality care for teens. These health centers provide a youth-centered environment with youth-friendly waiting rooms, videos, pamphlets, and magazines.
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North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) has developed statewide social media campaigns to inform clients of their services and where to access them. NC DHHS focuses these campaigns on adolescents. They updated their messaging from “family planning” to “reproductive health” to emphasize that services are for everyone.
- The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) uses strategies that encourage more adolescents to use sexual and reproductive health services. Teens in Alabama can schedule family planning appointments with short notice, receive Title X services after school hours, and access confidential family planning services without parental consent. ADPH also uses targeted social media marketing to reach teens in different areas across the state.
Over-the-Counter Birth Control Is Now Available!
Opill (norgestrel) tablet to prevent pregnancy—the first daily birth control pill approved for use in the U.S. without a prescription—is now available at local retailers. You can purchase oral contraceptive medicine over the counter at drug stores, convenience stores, grocery stores, online, and some Title X clinics.
Nonprescription availability of Opill may reduce barriers to access by allowing people to obtain birth control pills without first needing to see a health care provider. It also may help to prevent unintended pregnancies and their potential negative impacts.
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