Figure 2. Federal expenditures for family planning services: project grants and all other funds, FY 1967- FY 1973

Nearly all federal support of family planning services has come through categorical project grants. These funds have been frozen since 1972, while unsubstantiated claims have been made regarding sizable increases in family planning expenditures under the state-administered Medicaid and Title IV-A social services programs. The result has been to inflate the estimate of the federal funds actually available to finance services.

The increase

to grow. overall policy and budgetary choices imposed severe constraints on the program's ability although Congress voted to extend the basic authorizing legislation, the Administration's by a series of legislative enactments, policy reports and administrative changes. In 1973, federal support of family planning services has been backed up, since 1967,

Figure 4. Annual rate of increase in patients served by organized programs, FY 1969-FY 1973

Spurred particularly by the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act, the program's annual rate of growth in patients served increased steadily each year until it reached a record 38 percent during FY 1972. in FY 1973, when project grant expenditures were frozen at the FY 1972 level, little money was available for expansion and the rate of increase declined to 23 percent.

Figure 5. Family planning provider agencies, by type, and counties reporting family planning services, FY 1968-1973

The program's growth has been reflected in annual increases in number of provider agencies and of counties reporting organized family planning programs. The significantly increased numbers of voluntary and public hospitals, local health departments, Planned Parenthood Affiliates and other agencies providing family planning services since 1968 shows the response of existing health institutions to the stimulus of a federal priority program. By 1973, programs were identified in almost two-thirds of U.S. counties.

Figure 6. Poverty status of patients of organized family planning programs FY 1973 (N=3,208,000 patients)

Nearly all patients served in organized family planning programs have low or marginal incomes. Close to three-quarters have incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty index, while 85 percent have incomes below twice the poverty index. (150 percent of poverty, the cutoff used for planning purposes in the DHEW Five-Year Plan, is a sliding scale of income/family size thresholds centered in 1973 around an income of $6,620 for a nonfarm family of four.)