Trump administration awards $1.7 million family planning grant to anti-abortion group

Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY Published 2:35 p.m. ET March 30, 2019 | Updated 2:39 p.m. ET March 30, 2019

The non-profit Obria Group, which considers itself an anti-abortion version of Planned Parenthood, says the $1.7 million award it is receiving from the Trump administration will help fund a chain of crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion and do not offer contraceptives.

At the same time, the Department of Health and Human Services, which announced the grant on Friday, is cutting funds to some Planned Parenthood affiliates.

“Many women want the opportunity to visit a professional, comprehensive health care facility — not an abortion clinic — for their health care needs; this grant will give them that choice,” Kathleen Eaton Bravo, founder and CEO of The Obria Group, said in a statement.

Obria also said it expects to receive a total of $5.1 million over the next three years in Title X Family Planning funding, awarded by HHS, to expand services to low-income individuals and families in four California counties.

Planned Parenthood said Friday that four of its affiliates, which serve 40,000 people in Hawaii, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia, were “stripped of funding.”

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