(The following was submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Federal Register in defense of current Title X rules ahead of the July 31 public comment deadline).
We write today as two New Hampshire executive councilors representing 40 percent of the state and thousands of constituents who benefit from Title X funds. The New Hampshire Executive Council is the governmental body that approves the receipt of Title X funding in our state.
Title X was created in 1970 to make family planning affordable and accessible to individuals across the country, and the funding has improved lives and health outcomes for decades. In 2016, 18,324 New Hampshire residents were served by the Title X program. The services provided to these individuals include birth control, STD testing, cancer screenings and annual exams. These critically important services keep people well and save lives. They also promote economic security and protect public health for all citizens.
Title X is also a smart investment of tax dollars. In 2010, Title X services saved New Hampshire and the federal government an estimated $16 million by preventing unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and cancer.
The current threats to implement an extreme domestic gag rule put politics ahead of patients’ needs and will prevent people from receiving critical care. Providers such as Planned Parenthood, the Joan G. Lovering Center and the Equality Health Center will lose Title X funds under this scheme because they provide a broad range of reproductive health services to women. The funding loss will cause more than 18,000 individuals to be denied access to cancer screenings, birth control, annual exams and other critical services.
We both ran for the executive council because politicians had, on two separate occasions, defunded family planning services, and we knew those unconscionable decisions should not stand. We should expand the services provided by Title X, not restrict access as the proposed gag rule will undoubtedly do on a nationwide basis.
Federal funds do not pay for abortions, but the Trump administration and congressional Republicans are holding Title X money hostage to their extreme beliefs about reproductive rights. They are seeking to chip away at constitutionally protected rights and assert their own opinions over a woman’s right to choose and prevent the dissemination of information to patients.
The government should have no role in making private and personal medical decisions for individuals across this country, but that’s the effect of this policy change. Women should have access to medical consultations that allow them to make fully informed decisions about their health and obtain affordable contraception and family planning.
Planned Parenthood and independent health centers in New Hampshire provide essential, compassionate care. Without Title X funding, Granite Staters will be harmed, plain and simple. We urge the White House and Congressional Republicans who are pushing this domestic gag rule to take a closer look at the impact and historic progress Title X has made and in turn abandon these misguided rule changes.
(Chris Pappas is executive councilor for District 4. Andru Volinsky is executive councilor for District 2.)