Executive Councilor Tries to Rewrite History

Yesterday, Dean Barker documented the Executive Council’s rejection of a two-year $1.8 million Planned Parenthood contract to provide health care services for New Hampshire women.

Steve Trombley, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England CEO, said he will continue to pursue the contract including the possibility of a legal challenge.

“We obviously don’t believe this is a settled issue at this point,” he said. “We intend to challenge this at every level we can possibly challenge it.”

Beyond asking the council to rehear its request, Trombley said the organization is looking into filing a lawsuit.

The likelihood of a court battle (and Planned Parenthood win) may have just increased. In a similar case, a federal judge ruled Friday that Indiana cannot cut off funding for Planned Parenthood clinics.

Indiana is not allowed to cut off Planned Parenthood’s public funding for general health services solely because the organization also provides abortions, a federal judge said Friday in blocking parts of the state’s tough new abortion law.

This may explain why Executive Councilor St. Hilare told Kevin Landrigan that his vote rejecting the contract had nothing to do with the fact that Planned Parenthood performs abortions.

St. Hilare said it wasn’t abortion rights that moved him to turn down the pact. Instead, it was the $250,000 salary for the executive director and the fact that the group isn’t based in New Hampshire.

But soon after the vote, St. Hilare told Dan Gorenstein that was precisely why he voted again the contract.

“Actually funding an agency that performs the actual event is something that I would object to, and I have objected to. That’s why I voted against it.”

The so-called ‘event’ is abortions.

Hilaire and two of the other councilors rejected the $1.8 million dollar federal and state contract because they oppose taxpayer money supporting organizations that provide abortions.

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