DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s family planning program is providing far fewer services like contraception a year after state lawmakers excluded Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving state funding, according to data from the state Department of Human Services.
The program covered 970 family planning services from April through June, a 73 percent decrease from the roughly 3,600 services covered by the program during those months in 2017, The Des Moines Register reported. The department spent about $737,000 of the $3.3 million the Legislature designated for the program in the fiscal year 2018.
The program aims to help poor and moderate-income level residents obtain contraception. Legislators decided in 2017 to ban agencies that provide abortions from participating in the program. The state lost $3 million annually in federal Medicaid funds.
The number of patients enrolled in the program has also dropped from almost 8,600 in June 2017 to less than 4,200 in June 2018, according to the department’s data.
“This is exactly what we were concerned would happen — that people who need this program would not get enrolled and would not get services,” said Jodi Tomlonovic, executive director of the Iowa Family Planning Council, a private nonprofit group that distributes federal money for family planning services.
Mark Anderson, chairman of the Iowa Council on Human Services, said he’s concerned by numbers. Anderson said he opposes abortion but supports making birth control available.
“I understand it’s counterintuitive to say that by closing Planned Parenthoods, which provide abortions, you might wind up with more abortions,” he said.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland spokeswoman Becca Lee said she hopes lawmakers will reverse their 2017 decision.
“They have an obligation to the people they serve to fix the mess they made,” she said.
The 2017 change cost Planned Parenthood $2 million annually in public money, according to agency leaders. The organization closed multiple clinics in Iowa last year because of the funding loss.
