Eliminating family-planning funds will hurt community

Gov. Chris Christie’s FY11 state budget proposes the complete elimination of state funding for familyplanning services.

These programs provide basic health care to New Jersey women and men, many of whom have recently lost their jobs and/or their health insurance.

Restoring the funds for family planning makes sense because:

for every $1 spent on family planning services, $4 in Medicaid costs is saved;

in New Jersey in 2009, family-planning agencies provided services to more than 136,000 women and men;

more than 1 million New Jersey residents are uninsured, and nearly 400,000 New Jersey women are in need of subsidized family-planning services;

family-planning agencies are often the gateway to primary health-care services for low-income and working families who would otherwise not seek traditional preventive health care.

Our community will be hurt if these services are eliminated. The Middlesex County Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) calls upon Gov. Christie and our legislators to fully restore funding for family planning.

Skip Drumm

President Middlesex County National

Organization for Women