Republicans Block Health Care for 12,000 Granite Staters, Vote No on Family Planning Contracts
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3207
NASHUA – Today, in a vote of 4-1, Republican members of the Executive Council voted against contracts for New Hampshire’s family planning providers, thereby jeopardizing access to birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing & treatment, and cancer screenings for 12,000 lower-income Granite Staters. During discussions, Republican members cited their unfounded fear that contract money would be used to provide abortion services despite DHHS confirmation that no funds are being used to perform abortions. Democratic Councilor Cinde Warmington was the sole dissenting vote.
Deputy Senate Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua) issued the following statement in response:
“Today’s vote to reject this critically needed money is a vote against vulnerable and low-income Granite Staters. It is a statement from Republicans who apparently feel that these patients don’t deserve the same access to quality health care as everyone else. In 2019, Senate Democrats saw the gap in family planning funding caused by the Trump administration’s federal gag rule and provided critical backfill funding for New Hampshire providers in the state budget. While Trump’s gag rule continues to wreak havoc with the delivery of preventative care, Republican budget writers rejected our attempts to allocate similar stop gap funding and gave the Executive Council the tools they needed to reject all contracts with family planning providers who also provide abortion, even though, as representatives from NH DHHS stated unequivocally today, these funds are not used for abortion care.
The last time Planned Parenthood health centers in New Hampshire were defunded, then-Councilor Sununu cast the deciding vote. Today, Governor Sununu failed to exhibit any leadership of his party or his Council when he sat back and watched four Republicans dismantle the reproductive health care infrastructure of our state, jeopardizing access to care for 12,000 Granite Staters.”
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