California state officials say a family planning program for low-income women is in jeopardy due to conflicts with the Bush administration.

The state officials said Washington is pushing for the state to change its method of counting illegal immigrants who use the Family Planning, Access Care and Treatment Program, or Family PACT, and the changes could increase the cost of the program for the state by 40 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

We are ... potentially dismantling a program that everybody believes has been highly effective, said Stan Rosenstein, the head of Medi-Cal, California's healthcare program for low-income residents.

Officials said Family PACT saves federal and state taxpayers more than $1.4 billion each year by helping poor women avoid unwanted pregnancies.

The federal government shells out $315 million toward the program's $432 million cost each year, but the federal money can only be spent on legal residents.

Administrators of the program said they have been using a statistical method to count the number of illegal immigrants using Family PACT, but federal officials have ordered the program to begin vetting all participants to ensure they are legal residents. The Bush administration told officials last month that they have 30 days to implement the changes or the program will lose its federal funding.

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