Trump administration gives final say on money for family planning to abstinence advocate

Valerie Huber has spent more than a decade promoting 'sexual risk avoidance'

Valerie Huber is the the acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (YouTube/Love and Fidelity Network)

The Trump administration has given a woman who built her career championing abstinence the final say on which family planning clinics will receive federal funding.

The administration has placed the decision as to which organisations receive a Title X grant in the hands of Valerie Huber, the acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and an advocate for “sexual risk avoidance".

The $286m Title X grant programme provides federal funding to health care providers that offer family planning services like fertility treatment and contraceptives. The money cannot legally be used to fund abortions, but conservatives have railed against the grants in the past for going to organisations – like Planned Parenthood – that provide the procedure alongside other family planning services.

Ms Huber has said Planned Parenthood is still welcome to apply for the grants, but that the department would prioritise applications from organisations with a religious background, and those that counsel abstinence or “natural” methods.

Before joining the Trump administration, Ms Huber served as president of Ascend – a “sexual risk avoidance” organisation formerly known as the National Abstinence Education Association. Before that, she managed the Ohio Department of Health’s Abstinence Education Program.

Describing her “sexual risk avoidance” curriculum in a 2017 column for the Hill, Ms Huber wrote that she focuses on “normalizing sexual delay for youth”.

“The healthiest message for youth is one that gives youth the skills and information to avoid the risks of teen sex, not merely reduce them,” she wrote.

At a 2012 speech to the Bringing America Back to Life symposium, Ms Huber said: “We think that young people need to know information that is going to help them make the best decision – and that best decision is to wait.”

The decision to give Ms Huber the final say on grants is a change from previous years, when decisions were made by a regional health official, as well as the HHS deputy assistant secretary for population affairs and the assistant secretary for health.

This year, applications will be reviewed by an independent review panel. Then they will go to Ms Huber for the final say, according to Politico, which first reported the news. An HHS spokesperson told the outlet that the department has been working for years to “streamline administrative function” for Title X grants.

“The selection process in the funding opportunity announcement has been updated to reflect that the office head, in this case, the [deputy assistant secretary for population affairs], will make the final selections,” the spokesperson said.