Many safety net family planning service providers offer more than just reproductive health care out of the realization that family planning medical care is often the only medical contact women, particularly poor women, may access.
Therefore, safety net service providers, like Planned Parenthood, provide life-saving primary care and preventative services such as breast and cervical cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, as well as contraception services and other healthcare services.
These services became scarcer when the Christie administration cut $7.45 million in funding for women’s family planning and related health care in 2010. As a result, six of 58 New Jersey family planning centers had to close. Remaining clinics had to reduce services and hours and 33,000 less patients could be served according to one source, Casey Olesko, in a September 2017 interview.
In an important step toward restoring these services, Assembly members Joann Downey and Eric Houghtaling (both D-Monmouth) sponsored Assembly Bill A-2134 and freshman state Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) sponsored the Senate version, S-120, to restore much-needed funding for women’s healthcare. The bills passed in both houses and were signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy.
Specifically, the law provides $7,453,000 in the current fiscal year in supplemental funding for women’s healthcare grants to the New Jersey Department of Health. This will allow many underserved women the opportunity to access a needed range of family planning and other primary care services.
This legislation marks the beginning of the partnering of Assembly members Downey and Houghtaling, along with Sen. Gopal with our new governor, Gov. Murphy, to create needed changes in New Jersey.
Margaret S. Beekman
Freehold Township