A lot has changed in the 11 months since the Executive Council voted against accepting $639,000 in federal funds that would be distributed to the state’s five Planned Parenthood health clinics. That vote split 3-2 along party lines. For Councilor Chris Sununu, now a candidate in a five-way primary to become the Republican nominee for governor, it was a break from his past votes to support Planned Parenthood funding. Not only is Sununu a pro-choice Republican, he long recognized that the clinics serve the needs of many constituents who might otherwise not get health care.
The council will vote today on whether to approve a contract to release some remaining funds meant for Planned Parenthood. It’s time for Sununu to reverse course and vote in favor of funding. He has good reason to do so.
Sununu’s “no” vote was cast while the nation’s attention was hysterically focused on a clandestine video that purported to show Planned Parenthood workers discussing the sale of body parts from aborted fetuses. The video, taken surreptitiously by anti-abortion activists, turned out to be heavily edited and misleading. It includes a disturbing photo taken without permission from a woman’s Facebook page that the videographers wrongly linked to Planned Parenthood. The filmmaker and his assistant are now both under indictment for tampering with government records.
Planned Parenthood, which was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing, does, in a few states but not in New Hampshire, provide donated fetal tissue to researchers at cost to help in the search for cures for Parkinson’s and other diseases. It has never been in the fetal tissue business. Instead, through its family planning services and work to reduce unintended pregnancies, it is in the business of making abortion less necessary.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the kind of restrictions the state of Texas placed on abortion providers, efforts that come before New Hampshire’s Legislature routinely, were unconstitutional. They illegally restrict access, especially for poor women, and lead to an increase in high risk back alley abortions. A vote to fund Planned Parenthood is a vote to treat all of the state’s women equally.
In another sign of our rapidly changing times and need to adapt to them, the Concord Feminist Health Center announced that it is changing its name to the Equality Health Center. The change, though it should make the oft-picketed center a bit less of a political target, was actually driven by the growing number of males, lesbians and transgender people who receive health services at the center. Its name, they felt, did not necessarily represent them or their sentiments. More residents of every gender and gender preference are being treated at the clinics primarily seen as serving pro-choice women.
Planned Parenthood clinics definitely serve men. They test for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and provide cancer screenings including tests for prostate and colon cancer. They treat urinary tract infections and perform fertility tests and physical exams for patients of all genders. So by voting no once again, Sununu would deny health care services to more people than he might have realized. Do the right thing, Chris. Health care is too important to be denied by politics.