On Sept. 4, 1969, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report that called birth control pills safe, despite a slight risk of fatal blood-clotting disorders linked to the pills. By 1970, approximately 22 percent of married women of reproductive age (nearly 6 million women) were using oral contraceptives.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), family planning is one of the 10 great public health achievements of the twentieth century, on a par with such accomplishments as vaccination and advances in motor vehicle safety.

The first federal family planning grants were funded in 1964 through the Office of Economic Opportunity as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The genesis and popularity of these grants reflected, in part, the recent and increasing availability of new reversible methods of contraception.

In the mid-1960s, however, it became evident that, because the modest funds from these grants were controlled by the states, the family planning programs developed with these funds varied greatly in their accessibility, eligibility requirements, and services provided. This realization added to the growing interest in having a federal program that could make grants directly to public and private entities within a state, bypassing the state governments.

President Richard Nixon showed a particular interest in family planning. In a message to the Congress in July 1969, he wrote: “It is my view that no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition. I believe, therefore, that we should establish as a national goal the provision of adequate family planning services within the next five years to all those who want them but cannot afford them”