Who Pays for Planned Parenthood

For the third time since 2007, legislation has been filed to cut off all state funding for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which runs six health centers in New Hampshire.

The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee will hold the first public hearing on House Bill 228 Tuesday. While no state or federal funds can be used for abortions — except in the case of rape, incest, or danger to mother’s health — the bill’s primary sponsor claims the state’s taxpayers are paying for them, all the same.

“It all goes into the same pot of money, doesn’t it?” said Rep. Robert Willette (R-Milford). “The taxpayers of this state don’t want to pay for abortions.”

But Kary Jencks, the public policy director of the New Hampshire chapter of PPNNE, says that is a frequent and inaccurate claim made by opponents of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of reproductive health services.

“None,” Jencks says when asked about the amount of government funds used for abortions. “We hear the same talking points every year. If they can’t make abortion illegal, they want to target providers. This is part of a national effort to shut us down.”

She explains that 97 percent of services offered by PPNNE are normal primary and preventative health care. Only 17 percent of the funds for clinics in New Hampshire come from state and federal government grants and contracts, she says. That money is used, in part, to subsidize many low-income patients who don’t have health insurance and don’t qualify for Medicaid. Jencks says among the most frequently used services are annual gynecological exams that include screenings for five types of cancer — cervical, breast, uterine, colorectal and ovarian. She says that no patients are turned away for inability to pay and that the New Hampshire clinics provided $5.5 million in donated care in 2010.

“We provide essential health services that are definitely vital to New Hampshire women and families,” Jencks says. “I will be testifying specifically about preventive health care. Abortion is not the issue. The real message is the necessary preventive care we provide.”

Willette says budget priorities are another reason for HB 228, but even he admits he doesn’t know exactly how much PPNNE gets from the state or how much money would be saved. While the legislative office has yet to supply a financial analysis for HB 228, the analysis for the 2009 measure (House Bill 486) showed that the N.H. Department of Public Health had a contract with PPNNE for $848,024. State general funds accounted for $84,802 of that, and $763,222 came from federal matching grants.

“The taxpayers of New Hampshire shouldn’t have to pay anything to Planned Parenthood,” Willette says.

Both of the two similar bills from 2007 and 2009 were voted “inexpedient to legislate” out of committee and were defeated on the floor. Jencks says this year promises to be different because of the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate and the number of new lawmakers who have arrived. “We still have a lot of unknowns and don’t know the personality of the House yet,” she says.

The hearing on HB 228 comes amid a charged political environment in the debate over abortion. Congressional Republicans have a bill to defund Planned Parenthood nationally, and the organization was also targeted by a group operating a with a video sting campaign in six states. (For more about that controversy, read this Washington Post story.)

Even in the event of a state funding cutoff, Jencks says, “we’re not going anywhere.” Judging by the repeated attempts to de-fund Planned Parenthood, neither is the abortion debate.

>> Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 1:30 p.m. — Public hearing for House Bill 228 in the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, Legislative Office Building, Room 205.

This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord, with contributions from Hilary Niles.

Posted by Hilary Niles on Feb 7 2011. Filed under abortion, abortion debate, Family, Government, Health, state budget, Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry