GOP Rips Planned Parenthood Funding
Bettencourt, O'Brien say Lynch bypassed Executive Council.
A day after it was announced Planned Parenthood of Northern New England would receive a federal contract to provide its services in the Granite State, two state House leaders blasted the plan.
In a joint statement, House Speaker William O'Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) said Gov. John Lynch bypassed the Executive Council with this decision.
"It’s certainly very disappointing that the federal government would step on states' rights and usurp the authority of the Executive Council by commandeering these family planning funds and handing them to one provider in a sole source, no bid contract," O'Brien said.
He added he finds it "unacceptable" that Lynch never found "other vendors to provide family planning services once the Council made abundantly clear that Planned Parenthood was not an appropriate place for the state to spend taxpayer money."
Bettencourt said Lynch "has proved that he is beholden to liberal special interests" and "has now sent a clear message that he is no moderate and is just as concerned (as Obama) with protecting a left-wing agenda.
"His Administration’s effort to avoid finding an appropriate replacement for Planned Parenthood shows that he is just as beholden to liberal groups as is President Obama," Bettencourt said.
On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) lauded the plan for which she had advocated at the federal level.
"Women in every part of the state deserve access to affordable reproductive health services, and Planned Parenthood is a critical provider of those services in our state," she said in a statement. "These clinics also provide vital preventive care, such as screenings for breast and cervical cancer. In some parts of New Hampshire, Planned Parenthood is the only provider of these preventive services to low-income women."
She added she is "glad the federal government has stepped up to provide this new contract, so that women in every part of New Hampshire will have somewhere to turn for basic health issues."
Shaheen had asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to consider a direct contract with Planned Parenthood to provide reproductive health services in the Granite State.
"These critical health services were jeopardized when the New Hampshire Executive Council relinquished a federal Title X grant by rejecting a contract with Planned Parenthood to provide these services," according to a statement from Shaheen's office.
Laurel Redden
9:05 am on Thursday, September 15, 2011
What did these so-called leaders imagine Lynch would do - stand by and watch as the unplanned pregnancy rate in his state mounted? In response to their own failure to act to prevent this from happening and taking responsibility as a state for ensuring our own people are taken care of, they criticize Lynch for stepping up? Thank GOODNESS someone in Concord and Washington figured out how to get this critical service funded! I just find it pathetic our executive council, with the apparent support of these House "leaders," put NH in the position of begging for Federal funds from people in other parts of the country - in states like Mississippi! - to provide what we need in NH.
Tom Linehan
4:38 pm on Thursday, September 15, 2011
When you subsidize something you get more of it. If Planned Parenthood was not trying to increase abortions, they could set up a subsidiary organization that did not promote abortions. I am not necessarily against all abortions. But most of the ones I know about amount to abortion for the heck of it. What about the baby's right to life? That is the most basic right of all.