One of my dear friends walks the line between brilliant and, well — you can guess the rest.
Due to the economy and enjoying his first year in college a little too much, Ryan found himself without health insurance. He was too old to be on his parents’ health insurance and not qualified enough to get a job with health insurance he could afford. This became quite tragic when life threw him an even bigger curve ball, and he got sick.
Ryan had been dealing with extreme fatigue and wasn’t the friendliest person to be around. He had lost quite a bit of weight but was still eating as though it might be his last meal. Ryan, being the sometimes brilliant man that he is, went to his local walk-in clinic. (It only took about two weeks for us to get him to go.)
Lucky for Ryan, his local walk-in clinic was supported by Title X. This meant that due to his current low income and lack of health insurance, he could pay what he could afford.
As it turns out, Ryan had Type 1 Diabetes, which previously had gone undiagnosed. Not only did he get testing he could afford, but the clinic also referred him to a specialized care doctor who takes his new insurance.
Title X also provides breast and cervical cancer screenings to those who would otherwise go without. Roughly 40,000 women and 400 men died from breast cancer in 2010. Also in 2010, roughly 4,000 women died from cervical cancer. To break this down to a local factor, in 2006, out of the 15,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Mississippi, about 2,000 were breast cancer. These free- or income-based sliding scale assessments could be life-saving procedures.
In 1970, America saw the beginning of Title X, which was designed to be a commonsense, bipartisan approach to helping reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in the United States. 
It was also created to provide low-income, uninsured and poor Americans preventive health care and contraceptive services. Clinics and other health agencies supported by Title X have provided health care access and screenings to individuals for 40 years.
Fifty million Americans are reported to be without health care, and Title X provides preventive care as well as early screening tests and exams. These early screenings include anemia, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
The target audience for Title X, low-income and poor Americans, is currently three times as likely to be without health insurance. Title X-funded health agencies serve over four million people a year. Only one third of those patients seen have incomes above the poverty level. 
While vast majorities of the patients served by clinics that receive Title X funding are women, we also need to view this from a human perspective. Yes, Title X has a special emphasis on helping low income and poor women, but it also helps men. Sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, diabetes, anemia, high blood pressure and unintended pregnancies aren’t just women’s issues.
From a feminist perspective, Title X is great; it provides men and women equal access to information and services. It also provides early screening to an at-risk population. Family planning programs provided by Title X have helped reduce unintended pregnancies, promote healthy families and improve positive birth outcomes. These programs are especially important given the nation’s teen pregnancy rate. Mississippi, unfortunately, is the nation’s leader in teen pregnancy for the moment. Title X allows minors to seek confidential preventive sexual health measures such as condoms and birth control as well as education and counseling.
Currently, our government is trying to rebalance the budget and cut spending. Title X is one of the programs considered to be cut or have severeley reduced funding.
Title X’s funding has not actually kept up with inflation, so the program, much like many others, is under-funded. But considering the potential cost of not preventing disease or unintended pregnancy, the government may want to look at alternatives for its budget cuts.
Delilah Schmidt is a senior majoring in sociology. She can be contacted at
[email protected].