GOP Rips Planned Parenthood Funding

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.