Federal Title X staff was laid off. Will Arizona family planning services feel the impact?

As the federal government shutdown continues, the Trump administration has laid off most of the staffers who ran the program for family planning for low-income people, known as Title X, according to reporting from the New York Times.

Each year, more than 30,000 Arizonans who don’t have health insurance or who can’t afford care receive contraception, STI screening, pregnancy testing, breast exams or other reproductive health services through Title X funding.

The organization Affirm administers those funds in the state — about $6.1 million per year.

Affirm CEO Bré Thomas said even though most Title X staffers in Washington have been laid off, Affirm already has the funding it needs to continue operating at least through the end of March.

“I think we are good until April 1, and then we’ll have to see what happens after April 1 with regard to the program and the funding,” Thomas said.

Thomas said so far, no Title X services have been disrupted in Arizona by the shutdown or the layoffs.

The Title X program dates back to 1970 and is run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Thomas said it will be up to Congress to decide how Title X is funded once the government reopens.

“Our hope is that Congress will continue to fund the program and then HHS will have to figure out how and where to monitor and run the program out of,” Thomas said.