At least six of New Hampshire’s nine family planning providers that receive Title X funds are leaving the federal program over changes made by the Trump administration to prohibit recipients of the money from referring patients for abortions in most cases.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is the largest provider to pull out, with five locations across the state. Vice president of public affairs Sabrina Dunlap says Title X funds used to account for about 25% of the group's operating budget in New Hampshire.
“And so the loss is significant. Of the 16,000 Title X patients in New Hampshire, we serve over 11,000 of them,” said Dunlap.
Now Dunlap says the group will rely on emergency funds to maintain their current level of services, which include STD testing, birth control, and cancer screening.
“Our goal is to make sure there's no disruption and to not cut staff or services. However, obviously, the longer this goes on the harder that gets,” said Dunlap.
Other organizations that are pulling out of Title X in New Hampshire include Amoskeag Health in Manchester, Lamprey Healthcare in Nashua, Coos County Family Health Services in Berlin, the Joan G. Lovering Health Center in Greenland, and Equality Health Center in Concord.
Planned Parenthood and a number of states are currently suing the Trump administration in an effort to reverse the rule change.
Meanwhile, state funds that were meant to make up for the loss of federal Title X funds are on hold as legislators and the governor continue negotiations over the state budget.
