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House Republicans got a restriction on funding for abortion in the state budget on Tuesday, but it’s so small it likely won’t place any new limits or demands on providers.
Under a compromise crafted by Senator Jeb Bradley, a Republican from Wolfeboro, abortion providers will have to show that they are not using state money for abortion services, as they should. already. But they won’t be required to move abortion care to a separate location as House Republicans have requested. If the state finds providers to mix state and federal money, they will lose state funding until they physically and financially separate the services.
“I don’t believe (the mix) is happening in New Hampshire,” Bradley said during final budget negotiations Tuesday. “So it’s as much as an insurance policy to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He continued, “It’s one of those moments of trust but verification.”
Bradley’s compromise was passed by a conference committee, 7-1, with the only Democrat, Senator Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua, voting against, in part because closing a clinic would also prevent her from offering Routine reproductive health care such as birth control, primary care, cancer screening and STD screening. Planned Parenthood said caring made up almost 90 percent of its work.
“This damaging amendment is based on a false narrative spread by hardline Republicans determined to further dismantle women’s health care,” Rosenwald said in a statement after the vote. “State funds are not used to pay for abortions, period. Patients seeking abortions in New Hampshire pay for these services out of pocket or through their health insurer. She continued, “When these services are crippled because of this partisan politics, disease and suffering can increase, and that will fall on the legislature.”
Abortion providers have said that requiring a separate physical space for such a small portion of their services is not financially feasible and will jeopardize their ability to provide other care.
Representative Jess Edwards, a Republican from Auburn in Tuesday’s negotiations, said the 128 House Republicans who insisted on a stronger separation have already drafted legislation they will introduce in January with the same separation requirement.
And, in the coming months, the Executive Council will vote on whether to renew the federal contract for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, a major source of its funding. Three of the five current counselors have rejected the contract in the past because Planned Parenthood refused to move abortion services from their reproductive health clinics. These councilors have refused to say publicly how they will vote this year.
In the eyes of the 128 House Republicans who said separation was non-negotiable, state money is used for abortion services whenever an abortion is performed in a room with public funding. pays for lights and heat. They say “fungible” spending can only be stopped if abortion services are performed in a different location with separate staff.
“All we’re trying to do is make sure that when people go to a family planning clinic, they go there to plan a family and not to request an abortion,” Edwards said. “We are just trying to separate family planning from the constitutionally protected right of women to have an abortion.”
The Senate removed the requirement to separate the House budget in another compromise that upheld the House’s ban on abortions after 24 weeks.
Edwards came to Tuesday’s budget negotiations with his own compromise. Rather than requiring an immediate separation of services, the Edwards Amendment would have allowed abortion providers to terminate their existing contracts with the state before having to physically and financially separate their services. It also allowed the state to renew those contracts, even though clinics had not outsourced abortion services, up to three times if there were no other providers performing abortions.
“We’ve tried to create a graceful transition from where we’re at where 128 House Republicans are asking us to go,” Edwards said.
After the vote, Edwards said he hoped those Republicans would be happy for now that their 24-week abortion ban remains in the budget and that Bradley’s amendment includes language acknowledging the desire for a physical and financial separation.
“Overall, we have made a lot of progress and made historic progress,” he said, referring to the 24-week ban.
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