Republican lawmakers want more scrutiny of providers using public funds for reproductive health care – New Hampshire Bulletin

Auburn Republican Rep. Jess Edwards told the House Committee on Health, Human Services, and Aging Affairs that Executive Councilor Janet Stevens asked him to sponsor the bill. Stevens is one of her four Republicans on the council, where he voted four times to end state funding for three reproductive health centers that treat more than 12,000 Granite State citizens. A person was subject to state and federal law.

House Bill 615 Provide the state with a second “independent” audit by a CPA of all centers that receive public funding for family planning services, including those that do not provide abortion, to ensure that no money is spent on abortion care The center must also provide an audit to the council at least one week prior to voting. The bill does not specify who will pay for the audit, but Edwards told the commission it would be the center.

Mr Edwards said his bill would not restrict access to abortion, but rather public funding for contraception, cancer and STD screening, breast exams, and other non-abortion reproductive health services. I don’t think it protects the

Stevens declined an interview request, but sent a statement Thursday night through her chief of staff Kevin Crissom. And the department did not provide her with an audit before the first council vote, she was audited before her second vote, but the center did not provide an explanation or lack I did not receive any “corrective action” steps to provide information.

At that meeting, Meredith Terrace, director of program planning and integrity for the Department of Health and Human Services, told city councilors that the department’s request for additional information would be a more detailed policy and procedures manual, as well as staff training. He said he had asked for additional information on the matter and said it did not reflect his concerns. That the Center misuses public money.

Stevens said he received the corrective action plan the night before the third meeting and didn’t have time to review it before voting. In his statement, Stevens did not say why he voted against his contract for the fourth time in July.

Gov. Chris Sununu, who urged the council to pass the deal, expressed frustration after the fourth vote in July.

“I keep getting[the deal]back … but regardless of the timing, regardless of what you put in there, regardless of the explanations we gave or the understandings we pushed, they’re pretty clear. As for them, they don’t want to move on,” he said.

In a statement Thursday, Stevens wrote: Going forward, you should consider using an external audit firm or using more standardized facility requirements to simplify the process. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services is severely understaffed and should consider outsourcing this process. ”

A spokesman for the station, Jake Leung, was not reached for comment Thursday night.

Gregory White, executive director of Lampley Health Services, which receives state funding but does not provide abortions, told the commission that his center has two publicly funded health care programs. He told the audit that he had already spent more than $50,000. Federally accredited health centers like Lampley Health Services must also audit other federally funded services. White said adding a third is said to cost the center another $2,000 to $10,000 for him.

White said his center receives about $229,000 a year from the state through family planning programs.

“My main concern here is that this is redundant, unnecessary, and an overwhelming administrative burden on very scarce resources,” White told lawmakers.

Edwards said the bill is co-sponsored by seven Republicans and is intended to ensure there is a “firewall” between basic reproductive health care and money spent on abortions. This is a concern often raised by Republicans who allege that public funds used to keep reproductive health care centers in operation fund abortions performed at those centers. .

“Perhaps since I first brought this issue to my attention in the 70s, what we have heard over the years and years and years is that there is no money mixed between abortion providers and family planning money. “We heard it, we heard it, we heard it.”

He told the commission, “This (the bill) is for abortion providers who have not convinced the Executive Council to (financially) separate.”

These providers are three whose funding was withdrawn by the council last year: Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Lovering Health Center, and Equality Health Center. They provide 70-80% of state-subsidized family planning care to low-income people, a number he estimates to be over 12,000.

Patricia Tilley, director of public health services at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the commission that votes from the council left four centers in the state’s family planning program. Belknap and Merrimack counties, and the Coos County Health Center in Berlin.

Tilley said he was concerned that the additional cost of another audit would reduce funding available for reproductive health care and create hurdles for providers.

“We are concerned about additional barriers and costly costs to the state’s highly fragile system of reproductive health care,” she said. “This is basic primary care for women as well as men with access to all these screening services and contraception. We are concerned that the provider safety net for income earners no longer exists.

Rep. Lucy Webber, a Walpole Democrat on the committee, voiced the same concerns Wednesday.

“Wouldn’t that cost come out of the money we would have actually spent to actually serve vulnerable people?” she said.

Kayla Montgomery, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Northern New England and New Hampshire, told the commission that their organization had been in the program for most of the past 50 years, until last year, in compliance with financial audits. He said he was participating.

Two New Hampshire facilities in Exeter and Derry do not perform abortions. She said a council vote eliminated funding needed for basic health care.

“This is especially important because the incidence of sexually transmitted infections is really rising in the region,” she said. “And we do it all for a sliding fee. If you come in and can’t afford the service, we offer it for free.”

Supporters of the bill who testified Wednesday included New Hampshire’s Rights to Life representative Kurt Werper. He hopes the state will not give money to health care centers that perform abortions, regardless of what the audit shows.

“We believe abortion is a violation of basic human rights, so using taxpayer money to support abortion is the right of conscience of every taxpayer who believes in our ways.” We believe that we are infringing on the

A June poll by the University of New Hampshire Research Center found that 10% of respondents opposed abortion in all circumstances. I said it should be legal.