FIGHT OVER FAMILY PLANNING FUNDS
Ducey, Legislature join bid to halt public money for Planned Parenthood
Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature want to play a role in managing how Arizonans plan their families. And it’s all part of an ongoing effort to block Planned Parenthood from accessing millions in federal funds.
Ducey and the Legislature this year, with a push from the conservative lobbying group Center for Arizona Policy, placed into the budget the requirement that the state try to take control of Arizona’s $4.5 million share of federal family-planning funds.
For more than 30 years, the non-profit Arizona Family Health Partnership has overseen the federal Title X program in Arizona, working with Planned Parenthood and other community clinics.
But if the state can win the contract, it will block any clinic that also provides abortions from participating.
The money assists low-income patients with birth control, pregnancy counseling and treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases. It cannot be used for abortions.
“What Governor Ducey is trying to do with women’s health care is bring it under political control. It’s atrocious,” said Planned Parenthood of Arizona lobbyist Jodi Liggett. “We do not approve of him playing politics with women’s health.”
About half of Arizona’s 36,000 Title X patients get their services at Planned Parenthood clinics.
Ducey policy director Christina Corieri said there are a lot of people who worry that any funds given to Planned Parenthood, even if they don’t directly pay for an abortion, are
used to support the organization’s ability to continue to provide abortions.
The Center for Arizona Policy is among them.
“Planned Parenthood has worked hard to rebrand itself as a women’s health provider, but their main business is still abortion,” Center for Arizona Policy President Cathi Herrod said. “Title X family planning gives them a patient base.”
But others worry that eliminating Planned Parenthood from the mix will mean thousands will no longer have convenient access to family-planning options, putting patients at risk and possibly increasing abortion rates in Arizona. Nothing is a done deal yet. Ducey and the Legislature only required the state Department of Health Services to apply to oversee the grant. Its next opportunity to win the threeyear grant isn’t until 2019.
And the Arizona Family Health Partnership vows to fight to keep it.
If the state were to win the grant, legislation passed in 2012 would apply. The law set strict criteria for the type of health providers that can participate under a state-led program.
The funds must be allocated in the following priority order: state, county or city health-care facilities; hospitals and federally qualified health centers; rural health clinics; primary-care doctors.
It expressly forbids the state from contracting with any organization or individual that provides abortions.
As a result, if the state were to win the grant, Planned Parenthood clinics in Maryvale, northeast Phoenix, Mesa, Flagstaff and Tucson would have to stop providing free or reduced-cost services under Title X.
Bre Thomas, CEO of the Arizona Family Health Partnership, said removing Planned Parenthood from the Title X network would overload the remaining clinics with patients.
“Planned Parenthood has five of the 29 clinics that receive grants, and they see roughly half the patients and get roughly half the funding,” she said. “They have done this work for 100 years. They are able to direct these funds for family-planning services in high-need areas.”
And anecdotally, she said, patients who can no longer go to the clinic they are most familiar with may not seek out family-planning services at all.
Dr. Jesselyn Gaona is chief medical officer at the Wesley Health Center, which offers Title X-funded services at two Phoenix locations.
She said about a quarter of their patients come specifically for family-planning services. About half of appointments include a discussion of family planning, she said.
“We have integrated family planning into primary care,” she said. “We will see someone for diabetes and say, ‘What about birth control?’ or if someone is there for prenatal care, we’ll start talking to them about postpartum contraception. We are always asking, always educating.”