Since 2025, Bridgercare has faced significant disruption to two federal grants that support healthcare and education across Montana. In April 2025, the Trump administration froze Bridgercare’s Title X Family Planning funding, withholding approximately $2 million in annual federal support for a statewide network of 20 clinics serving more than 15,000 Montanans each year, including 13 clinics in rural communities. Bridgercare and its partners continued providing care for four months without federal funding until the grant was restored in September 2025, at a 7.5% reduction. These clinics provide affordable birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and other preventive care in a state where access to healthcare is already limited, particularly in rural communities.
Then, in June 2026, the administration abruptly terminated Bridgercare’s separate $1 million-per-year Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) grant, two years before the scheduled completion of the five-year project. Bridgercare received notice on June 26 that funding would end that same day, leaving no transition period for programs and staff supported by the grant.
Since 2023, this funding had allowed Bridgercare to provide evidence-based sexual health education to thousands of Montana youth, train teachers and other trusted adults, partner with schools and community organizations, and sustain Bridgercare’s 35-year Peer Education program. Maintaining the full scope of programming previously supported by TPP would cost Bridgercare approximately $83,000 per month.
Together, these federal actions have created substantial financial and operational uncertainty for Bridgercare and the communities we serve. Our organization has had to find ways to keep essential healthcare and education available while responding to sudden losses and interruptions in federal funding that we had been awarded and had built programs around.
The consequences extend beyond Bridgercare: they affect rural clinics working to keep their doors open, families seeking affordable preventive healthcare, and young Montanans who rely on trusted, medically accurate information to make informed decisions about their health and futures.
Olivia Wathne
Associate Development Director, Bridgercare
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