WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took an important step on Friday in its push to restrict access to abortion and contraception, announcing that it would give as much as $5.1 million in family planning funds to a nonprofit organization funded by allies of the Catholic Church.

The grant from the Department of Health and Human Services went to the Obria Group, a Southern California-based nonprofit that describes itself as being “led by God” and that aims to siphon patients — and money — away from Planned Parenthood.

The grant to Obria, which includes $1.7 million in the first year and the prospect of that amount in each of the next two years, represents a fraction of the total amount of family planning money awarded by the department on Friday. But both supporters and opponents of abortion rights cast it as a potentially significant move to try to defund medical clinics that provide abortions, such as those affiliated with Planned Parenthood.

The funding comes from Title X, which subsidizes birth control, cancer screenings and other medical care for four million low-income patients. While Title X funds do not pay for abortion services as a method of family planning, affiliates of Planned Parenthood, which receive a significant portion of the program’s funds, perform abortions using other funds.