Dalia Vidunas, the executive director at Equality Health Center, is worried about the effect the newly-signed state budget will have on the women who go to her clinic.
Yes, she’s concerned about the ban on abortions after 24-weeks of pregnancy and mandatory ultrasounds, but she’s particularly focused on a loss of funding that could result in longer wait times and fewer affordable options.
The Equality Health center offers care to low-income women who may not be able to afford it from most other providers. Vidunas, like many advocates for family planning centers, sees a looming financial gap due to a lack of federal grants as a result of Trump-era policies and a new state budget that further cuts funding.
By some estimates, there will be a $1.2 million shortfall for N.H. family planning centers over the next several months.
“Our sliding fee scale starts at 250% of poverty level so that could include people who are working full time at places like Walmart,” she said. “We will have to change that because we will no longer be able to afford to do that.”
Several family planning centers lost funding after the Trump administration disallowed federally funded clinics to discuss abortions or refer patients to abortion clinics.
Many centers, including Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, chose to withdraw from the nationwide family planning program, rather than abide by what they called a “gag rule.”
In 2019, the state budget provided funds that compensated for these losses.
However this year, despite attempts from Democrats to include the same funding for these family planning centers, the budget that Gov. Chris Sununu signed Friday does not contain it.
The lapse will not only affect access to reproductive healthcare, but other potentially lifesaving procedures, advocates said at a roundtable hosted by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Friday morning.
The Biden administration has committed to reversing the Trump-era restrictions on federal funding. However, this process will likely take more than half a year to complete. Shaheen said she wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services, asking for assistance to find other sources of financial support for family planning centers in the meantime.
Ken Gordon, the CEO of Coos County Family Health Services, said reproductive healthcare often serves as a gateway to other important health services like screenings for hypertension, breast cancer, and cervical cancer.
Greg White, the CEO of Lamprey Health Care, said in Nashua, barriers to healthcare will disproportionately affect people of color.
“We’re very frustrated that we have, in effect, legislated a structural disparity in access to care,” he said.
He also fears nurses, who are already in short supply in New Hampshire, will shy away from applying to work at centers if funding seems uncertain.
The two-year-state budget contains more than just money.
The current legislation also includes language that would prohibit women from receiving an abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Late-term abortions like these are typically reserved for extreme situations in which the health of the mother is at risk or the fetus is non-viable. Fewer than 1% of abortions are performed after 24 weeks of pregnancy, according to national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kayla Montgomery, the vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood N.H. Action Fund, said though this ban affects relatively few women now, legislation of this sort may give way to more sweeping restrictions.
“The thing about taking away people’s reproductive freedoms is that it’s a very slippery slope,” she said.