Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says it’s facing a “bleak” financial situation that could threaten patient services in the coming years, in part due to Republicans’ efforts to block long-standing family planning funding.
The organization ended the most recent fiscal year with a projected deficit of at least $5 million, or about one-sixth of its annual budget, interim CEO Nicole Clegg said during a news conference Thursday. They’re also projecting a deficit of $8.6 million over the next three years.
Clegg said the organization – which has 15 locations across New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont – is not planning to make any immediate cuts. The organization has been able to use cash reserves to offset deficits so far, but she said those reserves are dwindling. And if nothing changes, she warned that they could consider clinic closures or other cuts to services.
“It will become increasingly hard for us to live up to the commitments we've made in terms of serving the existing communities we're serving now, and providing free and discounted care to everyone, regardless of ability to pay,” Clegg said.
Planned Parenthood provides abortion services, as well as contraception, STI testing, cancer screenings and other reproductive health services.
Clegg said the organization’s financial struggles are due to a confluence of factors, including rising costs, low reimbursement rates from insurers and more demand for free and discounted care.
“On top of that, we’re a political target,” she said.
Clegg said Vermont provides state funding for reproductive health services at Planned Parenthood, but Maine and New Hampshire do not. She called on state lawmakers to boost funding for reproductive health care, saying that a majority of Planned Parenthood’s patients are low income and for many of them, it’s their main health care provider.
In recent years, Republicans on New Hampshire’s Executive Council have repeatedly blocked funding for family planning and other reproductive health services from going to Planned Parenthood. The councilors opposing the funding have said they don’t want public money going to an organization that provides abortions, despite state audits showing the money at issue is not used for abortions.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says those rejected contracts have cost it $1.3 million so far. (In 2022, New Hampshire’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation announced $500,000 in federal family planning funds would go directly to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, bypassing the Executive Council.)
The rising number of out-of-state patients seeking abortions since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade has also impacted costs, Clegg said, as many of those patients need financial help.
