Last month, the GOP-led U.S. House proposed to eliminate the national family planning program (Title X). Language in the bill would also bar Planned Parenthood from offering health care services to Medicaid patients — including family planning, cancer screenings and well-women care.
In Vermont, some clinics could close as a result of the proposed federal funding cuts, according Jill Krowinski, director of Vermont public policy, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
“If this awful language gets passed,” said Krowinski, “we will have to make significant cuts. For many women we serve, we are their primary source of health care.”
Ten Planned Parenthood clinics provide women’s health services, including abortions, to about 20,000 patients in Vermont. About 13,000, or 65 percent, rely on Title X and Medicaid funding. The federal budget proposal would eliminate $3 million in funding for these Vermont patients.
The Pence Amendment, which was added to the Fiscal Year Continuing Appropriations Act for FY2011 (H.R. 1), excludes Planned Parenthood from all federal funding. President Barack Obama has vowed to veto the amendment.
Rep. Mike Pence said in his address on Feb. 17 to the House: “I believe that ending an innocent human life is morally wrong. But I rise tonight, because I also believe it’s wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use it to fund organizations that use it to provide and promote abortion, like Planned Parenthood of America.”
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Pence put the same measure forward in 2009, but the bill was defeated.
“The Republican Party is so out of touch,” said Krowinski. “What do they think will happen when women don’t have access to birth control?”
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has launched a campaign to prevent the legislation from passing in the U.S. Senate. The Northern New England chapter is trying to gain the support of the Senate delegations from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Title X, enacted in 1970, provides funding for family planning programs, STD and cancer screening, prenatal care, counseling and community outreach to low-income women and young women without health insurance. Congress appropriated $317 million to Title X in fiscal year 2010. The federal grant program is designed to offer complete family planning and preventive health care services to low-income families.
Planned Parenthood is the largest recipient of Title X funding. The elimination of Medicaid funding would affect about half of Planned Parenthood’s clientele, approximately 1.4 million people. Many other medical providers refuse to take Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement rates.
Federal funding for Planned Parenthood has long been a target of pro-life activist groups.
States have the option to use state-appropriated Medicaid funds for abortions; 17 allow public funding, four do so voluntarily. Vermont is one of 13 where courts interpreted their state constitutions and made a determination for the protection of reproductive choice and ordered nondiscriminatory public funding of abortion.
An exception in the Hyde Amendment rider attached to the yearly appropriations bill is that Medicaid will allow abortion funding in cases of rape, incest or when a pregnant woman’s life is jeopardized by illness, injury or some other physical problem.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the services provided at publicly-funded clinics saved federal and state governments an estimated $5 billion in 2008, and services at Title X–supported clinics were about $4 billion of that total.
In Vermont, 10 Planned Parenthood health centers perform more than 7,500 cervical cancer screenings, about 10,000 breast exams and 25,000 STD exams annually, which include HIV testing and counseling.
“It’s not just birth control,” said Krowinski. “We offer a unique service to women by helping them determine when they want to get pregnant or not want to get pregnant. It’s the whole scope.”
Planned Parenthood has been in Vermont since 1965, serving many women starting when they are teens and in some cases continuing into adulthood. They are able to offer a sliding scale fee and serve a need for gynecological services in the community.
“From the moment I stepped in, they were warm and welcoming,” said Sarah Colliton about her experience with Planned Parenthood. “They even were able to fit me with my IUD that very first appointment. I have ulcerative colitis, and she [the nurse practitioner] was very attentive to my pain factor and answered any questions I had, as well as asking questions of her own. She was actually taking an interest in me and my life.”
Colliton is a student with insurance, but her campus health office doesn’t offer the contraceptive she was interested in, so she sought the services of Planned Parenthood. She said she found the care and follow-up first-rate and affordable.
A grassroots bus tour is planned for March 10 and a rally from 12-1 p.m. at Victory Park in Manchester, N.H. Krowinski said she is gathering support for a car pool to travel to the Granite State.
A grassroots bus tour from “Women Speak Out: Defund Planned Parenthood” will be focusing on New York Reps. Ann Marie Buerkle, who voted for the measure, and Bill Owens, who voted against it on March 9.
The Pro-Life group said it has plans to show support for Buerkle and “target” Owens.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) , which covers Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, is the regional branch of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. There are a total of 20 clinics in PPNNE, 10 of which are in Vermont. Planned Parenthood is the only Title X provider in Vermont and seeks to be accessible to women throughout the state.
