If approved, the contracts would have extended state funding for the Equality Health Center, Lovering Health Center and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. Thousands of the clinics’ patients rely on that funding in order to have access to cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and other types of routine health care services.
The contracts had gained the support of Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, but other GOP state leaders decided to reject them for a third time on Wednesday. The state’s Executive Council, which has to give its approval to nominations and state contracts, voted 4–1 against approving them.
Public health officials have warned that by not extending funding for the clinics’ health services like cancer screening and testing, which are separate from their abortion services, patients may end up not getting any treatment at all. They also may try to seek those treatments and services at hospitals that are already full to the brim with COVID-19 patients.
“Right now our health system is strained at every level,” said Cinde Warmington, the Executive Council’s only Democrat, and the only councilor who voted in favor of the contracts.
The contracts were the first to be brought forward under a new requirement that the state confirm financial separation between family planning programs and abortion services. At the time of the first vote in September, audits were incomplete.
Councilors received audit reports confirming that funds were not commingled by the time of the second vote, but one councilor said she was concerned clinics had not yet corrected problems unrelated to how money was spent.
State officials said Wednesday those problems have been fixed—but the vote was the same.
Councilor David Wheeler said the information provided was not enough to prove that state money wasn’t being used directly or indirectly to pay for abortion services. Neither he nor the other three Republicans on the council answered when Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette asked what information would satisfy them.
“Is there something I can provide, something I could tell you?” she said. “Anything?”
Sandi Denoncour, executive director of Lovering Health Center, said the clinics and health officials have bent over backwards to answer the council’s questions for the last six months.
“As asserted by the Attorney General, our health centers are in full compliance with state law,” she said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Council’s willful ignorance threatens New Hampshire’s strong maternal health outcomes, including the lowest unintended pregnancies and teen pregnancy rates in the country.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
