A new grant within the Biden administration’s Harm Reduction Grant Program was awarded to a Planned Parenthood affiliate in New York, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) documents show.
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, Inc. was awarded $398,960 as part of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) harm reduction program in May, administration documents show. Only 25 organizations from around the country were awarded funding as part of the program, the rest of which are drug treatment-focused organizations or government agencies.
The grant abstract states that the Planned Parenthood office “seeks to expand its existing harm reduction model operating in New York City since 1988 to additional NYS communities in which we are already embedded as a trusted sexual and reproductive health care provider.”
The organization said it proposes using the funding for Project Street Beat- Region 2 in Dutchess, Orange and Ulster Counties due to high opioid burdens in those areas.
According to Planned Parenthood of Greater New York’s website, while Project Street Beat does offer some services for drug addicts, like clean syringes, narcan and overdose prevention counseling, it also involves a number of services that have nothing to do with drug overdoses. This includes STI screening and treatment, birth control and emergency contraception and gynecologic care.
People think it’s compassionate to just give homeless people housing without conditions but, writes @fionadourif, “My mom, too, was delivered food, shelter, and clean needles to inject the heroin that killed her. What harm did that actually reduce?”https://t.co/wqonOPmBND
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) June 4, 2022
The grant total of $398,960 was just under $400,000 maximum allowable by the grant. Eighteen of the 25 recipients received that amount. (RELATED: Taliban Declares War On Drugs, Bans Poppy Farming)
Neither SAMHSA nor Planned Parenthood of Greater New York responded to questions about why Planned Parenthood was chosen for this grant or how specifically the money will be spent, other than that it’s for the Project Street Beat program.
Planned Parenthood’s mission statement includes no specific mention of treating drug addiction, instead focusing almost entirely on reproductive and sexual healthcare.