Merrimack, N.H. – The State of New Hampshire recently released financial audits of New Hampshire’s abortion clinics in response to New Hampshire Right to Life’s Right to Know Request and litigation it has filed in Strafford Superior Court. The information received in response to this request details a startling increase of taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood abortion clinics here in NH and northern New England.
In late 2012, the State of New Hampshire applied to the federal government for funding of family planning clinics. The federal government responding by directly funding Planned Parenthood and giving a grant to the state to cover the other parts of the state. On June 13, 2013 the Executive Council approved family planning funds (Title X) for clinics not already funded by the federal government . At the insistence of Executive Council members Pappas and Van Ostern, it was discussed that, regardless of the fact it was already being funded by the federal government, Planned Parenthood needed to receive its “fair share” of state dollars. In response to this, NH DHHS promised the Executive Council that funding would come forth RETROACTIVE to give Planned Parenthood their “fair share” of state family planning dollars.
According to 2014/2015 budget numbers, NH DHHS requested budget funding of $345,000. Gov. Hassan INCREASED this amount to $894,000 in the Governor’s budget. It is interesting to note, that under Governor Lynch’s past budgets, Family Planning funding was fairly level throughout his time in office. Under Governor Hassan, this $500,000 increase is virtually unprecedented. In Governor Hassan’s budget, Comprehensive Cancer Screenings see only a modest increase from $170,000 to $170,362.
“This information is shocking, as abortion clinics in NH and New England have seen a huge increase in government funding these past two years. 2011 and 2013 increased from 23% to 37%, from $2.5 million dollars to $4 million dollars. And, these numbers do not include the promised $737,000 ‘retroactive’ funds given to Planned Parenthood from the New Hampshire General Funds budget in January 2014,” says Jane Cormier, the newly elected President of New Hampshire Right to Life.
The overview of these numbers obtained by the NHRTL Right to Know Request, demonstrate a 350% increase in direct state funding of Planned Parenthood of New England (Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire) from 2012 – 2014. State direct funding went from $181,000 in 2012 to $669,000 in 2014. Medicaid and federal payments appear to have increased by over $1 million.
“The examination of this information begs the question whether the state of New Hampshire should be using taxpayer dollars to subsidize the abortion industry at the expense of its hard-working, taxpaying citizens. At a time when our state budget is facing a huge deficit due to reckless over-spending, how can this funding be defended?” asks Cormier.
Also released in the Right to Know Request, according to IRS 990 records, Planned Parenthood of New England spent over $786,000 on public policy, lobbying, and grassroots organizing and lists as its accomplishments the Buffer Zone legislation and “squashing multiple anti-choice and anti-family bills.
“New Hampshire Right to Life questions whether taxpayers should continue to be financially burdened by the public subsidizing of the abortion industry here in New Hampshire. Our organization looks forward to having this discussion in the public square in 2015, and separating the facts from the fiction,” says Cormier.