All This Fuss for Nothing

Governor Jan Brewer recently signed into law HB 2800, the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act.

The new law ensures that abortion providers do not receive any family planning funds that pass through the state.

Planned Parenthood and other abortion supporters have been in hysteria over this law from the beginning of session. They’ve painted a doomsday scenario in the press, claiming this bill will deny low-income families access to medical care.

But as in most cases with Planned Parenthood media campaigns, the facts are not on their side.

As you can see from the map below, there will not be any shortage of providers that low-income families on the state’s Medicaid system known as AHCCCS will have to choose from.  The map shows there are 140 Federally Qualified Health Center delivery sites in Arizona that AHCCCS patients can choose from all across the state.  In addition to these locations and not shown on the map are 17 rural health clinics in Arizona, as well as countless hospitals and individual physicians and practices that also accept AHCCCS patients to serve low-income families.

In other words, the claim that 14 Planned Parenthood clinics losing federal family planning funding will result in some massive shortage of providers and healthcare access is completely ridiculous.

Furthermore, while on the subject of access to healthcare, HB 2800 actually increases healthcare access by directing patients to those entities that provide a broad range of services.

In the second chart, you’ll see that the amount of services offered at these “family planning centers” (i.e., Planned Parenthood clinics) does not even come close to the services offered from the public providers that receive the priority funding under HB 2800.

It only makes sense to direct what limited money is available to entities that provide the broadest and best range of care.

Sources: “Comparison of the Rural Health Clinic and Federally Qualified Health Center Programs,” Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Revised: June 2006), at http://www.ask.hrsa.gov/downloads/fqhc-rhccomparison.pdf (February 8, 2012).

Thanks to Susan B. Anthony List for their compiling this data.