OP-EDs

OP-ED for Family Planning Community Health Clinics

On Friday March 11 the Montana House of Representatives debated the state's budget for the coming two-year biennium. House Bill 2, by the time it reached the full 100 member body, already contained dozens of harmful reductions critical to the people and families of Montana. While we knew that the elderly, the young, and the poor were targeted to lose services in the state’s budget bill, what we didn’t know was that House Republicans weren’t done yet.

What happened within minutes of starting our debate on health and human services was breathtaking. With a single amendment --- supported by GOP leadership --- a program that has served Montanans for over 40 years was completely eliminated. With almost 28,000 patients annually, life-saving preventive health care and family planning services - including contraceptives, cancer screenings, and STD prevention - were lost across the state on a vote of 53-47. While 15 brave Republicans stood in support of this program and voted with all House Democrats (including the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services), the vote showed the true colors of a political party that has lost touch with Montanans.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) currently receives $4.7 million over the biennium for family planning services. DPHHS contracts with 15 family planning agencies in 27 locations throughout Montana. Stretching from Broadus to Eureka, Sidney to Hamilton, these clinics offer breast and cervical cancer screenings, affordable birth control, male physical exams, STI/STD testing and treatment, and critical counseling and educational services to men and women in need. In order to provide these services, local clinics rely on federal family planning funds and state funding --- the funding that has now been eliminated from the state’s budget.

As women legislators whose personal lives and health have been improved by these services, we are astonished at this foolhardy and callous move by Montana’s GOP leadership. Family planning is clearly cost-effective and helps prevent unwanted pregnancies. This harmful amendment denies healthcare and access to birth control for thousands of women and men from every county in Montana. For every $1 we spend on family planning we save $4 on Medicaid pre-natal care and pregnancies.

Family planning is one of the top 10 public health improvements of the 21st Century and is recognized as one of the few federal programs that meets prevention goals and demonstrates taxpayer savings. We need to do everything we can to help the families in Montana who are struggling in this economy. People are losing their jobs or keeping jobs that don’t offer health insurance. Men and women who access clinics are doing everything they can to make responsible decisions, plan for their families, and take care of their basic healthcare needs. The GOP has gone too far with this amendment and we urge all Montanans to stand up for Montana families and support prevention and the important basic care these clinics provide.

Rep. Margie MacDonald Billings House District 54
Rep. Edie McClafferty Butte HD 75
Rep. Jean Price Great Falls HD 21
Rep. Mary McNally, Billings, HD 49
Rep. Diane Sands, Missoula, HD 95
Rep. Ellie Boldman Hill, Missoula, HD 94
Rep. Betsy Hands, Missoula, HD 99
Rep. Kathleen Williams, Bozeman, HD 65
Rep. Carolyn Pease-Lopez, Yellowstone and Big Horn, HD 42
Sen. Christine Kaufmann, Helena, SD 41
Sen. Lynda Moss, Billings, SD 26
Rep. Franke Wilmer, Bozeman, HD 64
Rep. Virginia Court, Billings, HD 52
Rep. Michele Reinhart, Missoula, HD 97