Planned Parenthood received COVID relief dollars

In 2018, Gov. Tony Evers campaigned on a promise to restore funding for Planned Parenthood. 

The Republican-controlled Legislature in 2019, when Evers proposed his first budget, quashed an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, essentially nixing Evers' Healthy Women, Healthy Babies initiative. 

According to Britt Cudaback, communications director for Evers, the initiative included increasing funding for the Women's Health Block Grant and removing restrictions imposed by Republicans that resulted in healthcare providers, such as Planned Parenthood, losing their federal Title X funding, which covers family planning and other services. 

In his 2021-23 budget, Evers put the initiative back in play. Again, the changes were blocked.

In 2022, though, Evers allocated a small portion of federal COVID-19 relief dollars, about $2.4 million, to Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the state. Of that, $1.4 million was divided among individual clinics and about $1 million was given to the broader statewide organization.  

That funding moves this one to a Promise Kept.