GOP Preaches Responsibility, Blocks Family Planning

Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, a mother receiving public assistance is granted, on average, an additional $72.50 a month for the birth of a child. Last year, House Speaker Bill O’Brien threw his weight behind House Bill 1658, which would bar the increase.

“We’re going to require people to make responsible decisions. If you don’t have enough money to take care of the family you have, you don’t have more children,” O’Brien said.

In testimony before the House Finance Committee this week, sponsor Rep. Neal Kurk elaborated.

“I think it’s bad public policy for the state to make a payment to an individual that is an unnecessary payment when it is within the individual’s control to avoid the problem for the state,” Kurk said.

“When I try to help somebody in a private charitable venture I don’t expect them to do things that will make it more expensive for me to help them. I just will not give money to that kind of a charity or that kind of a person.

In other news, the House passed a bill that would eliminate all funding for basic, preventive health care services — including family planning — for over 16,000 New Hampshire women, men, and families who receive services from Planned Parenthood and other health facilities that offer full reproductive health care.

Councilors Challenge Planned Parenthood Contract

Three Executive Councilors have taken legal action to stop access to preventive care at Planned Parenthood centers in New Hampshire. Councilors David Wheeler, Dan St. Hilaire and Ray Wieczorek joined forces with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) in an attempt to void a federal grant awarded to Planned Parenthood for family planning services.

The federal government had stepped in and awarded the grant after the Executive Council left 16,000 New Hampshire residents without access to vital health care services including cervical cancer screenings, breast exams and sexually transmitted infections.

In the legal filing, the councilors claim the federal grant is “improper, irregular, unnecessary, in contravention of the authority of the Executive Council and its duly elected members, and in disregard for the sovereignty of the State of New Hampshire.” 

“We decided to pursue this right after we found out the long arm of Washington came in to contravene the decision we made… ,” Wieczorek said. “We’ve got a constitution in this country — the 10th amendment — we have state’s rights.”

St. Hilaire said he was contacted by ADF about signing the letter. “The legal counsel contacted us and said they wanted to file a letter and asked us to sign off on it,” which he did, he said.

The Alliance Defense Fund is a conservative Christian legal organization founded by high-profile Religious Right leaders including D. James Kennedy and James Dobson. The ADF is known for promoting “marriage protection,” exposing the “homosexual agenda” and fighting the supposed “war on Christmas.”

St. Hilaire’s Political Calculations Behind PPNNE Vote

Did Executive Councilor Dan St. Hilaire sacrifice the health of 16,000 New Hampshire residents for personal political ambition? Tony Schinella reports on the political calculations behind St. Hilaire’s vote to reject the Planned Parenthood contract to provide health care services in the state. 

The political rumor mill began spinning about a St. Hilaire gubernatorial run in 2012 not long after he voted to defund Planned Parenthood in June of this year. Up until that vote, he was not considered a serious potential statewide candidate since he drew a lot of his support from liberal-to-moderate Republicans and might not survive a primary, where voters tend to be more conservative. …

Earlier this year, some conservative leaders wondered openly about the swerve to the right with the defund vote, thinking that St. Hilaire might be considering a potential bid for governor in 2012.

In an interview with the Concord Monitor, St. Hilaire confirmed he is considering a gubernatorial run.

“I’m at the stage of deciding whether I should be jumping into the race or not,” St. Hilaire said.

Who’s Being Arrogant and Heavy Handed?

When the Executive Council refused to renew a contract with Planned Parenthood to provide family planning services for low-income New Hampshire families, the Department of Health and Human Services stepped in and awarded a replacement grant.

Councilors Raymond Wieczorek and David Wheeler, who voted to reject the Planned Parenthood contract, expressed outrage over the federal government’s “heavy hand” and arrogance in overriding the Council’s position. The Valley News takes them to task:

Let’s talk about arrogance. Three councilors voted to deny a respected nonprofit the grant money on which it relies to provide free and subsidized health services, including contraception, cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

By opposing not only the state contract with Planned Parenthood but also the federal role in providing assistance for family planning, the executive councilors betray their real intent. They seek to prevent women from having abortions, and they are trying to hobble one of the country’s leading abortion providers. …

Executive councilors … think they know what’s best for women, whose legal right to an abortion is being threatened all over the country.

Talk about the heavy hand of the state.

ICYMI: Feds Step In When Executive Council Fails to Act

When the Executive Council voted not to renew the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood to provide Title X family planning services, 16,000 New Hampshire residents were left without health care services ranging from birth control to cancer exams.

This week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services stepped in to protect the health of Granite State families by awarding a replacement grant to Planned Parenthood citing the “urgent need.”

Title X family planning services have not been provided in the areas of the state previously served by PPNNE since the contract between NHDHHS and PPNNE ended on June 30, 2011. There is an urgent need to reinstate services with an experienced provider that is familiar with the provision of Title X family planning services and applicable laws, regulations and administrative requirements, and has a history of successfully providing services in these areas of the state.

Councilor Dan St. Hilaire, one of the three councilors voting against renewing the contract, said he opposed the contract because Planned Parenthood also provides abortion services.

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

St. Hilaire was silent on where the 16,000 men, women and teenagers would now turn for vital health care services including cervical cancer screenings, breast exams and sexually transmitted infections. Following the Executive Council’s dereliction of duty, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen stepped in and asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to consider a direct federal contract. She applauded the federal government’s action.

“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,” Shaheen said. “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. I am 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.”

“New Hampshire Creates First, Actual Death Panel”

Despite the New Hampshire legislature having previously voted down attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, a 5-member Executive Council overturned these actions by a vote of 3-2 in a closed meeting without hearings. This gave new meaning to the ‘60 slogan, “Power to the People,” which has now been officially rewritten as “Power to the 3 People.”

[O]ne of the committee councilors, Raymond Wieczorek, cold-heartedly (though disingenuously) said, “If they want to have a good time, why not make let pay for it?” Surprisingly, Mr. Wieczorek is now on the side of the pro-prostitution lobby. Beyond that, though, given the grave health risks that now are much increased through the Executive Council’s action, conservative cries about a Death Panel have become a reality. There is no word on whether this also shows further evidence of conservatives’ hatred of humans.

— Robert J. Elisberg, political writer and screenwriter

NH Supports Planned Parenthood: The Video

When Cornerstone Executive Director (and potential GOP gubernatorial candidate) Kevin Smith organized a “Defund Planned Parenthood” event, Planned Parenthood supporters outnumbered Cornerstone allies by a 2-1 margin.

“Planned Parenthood May Have Saved My Life”

Hillary Nelson shares a moving tale of living in New York, with “almost no money and no health insurance,” and having a precancerous condition discovered and treated by doctors at Planned Parenthood. Then she confronts the Executive Councilors who refused to renew the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood.

They’re taking a calculated risk that the tens of thousands of under-insured and uninsured poor women who rely on the organization don’t follow politics and that the rest of us can’t figure out that their stupidity will cost us more money in the end, not less.

But come the next election they’ll discover there are a lot of women in their districts like me, who were young once, and careless, and poor, who relied on Planned Parenthood. Who perhaps even had their lives saved by Planned Parenthood.

We’re older now, and wiser. Maybe even a little richer.

And we vote.

The personal is political.

NH Supports Planned Parenthood

Cornerstone Executive Director Kevin Smith organized a press conference and rally yesterday to applaud the Executive Council for cancelling a Planned Parenthood contract that would provide health services for thousands of women. Smith said the Executive Council “correctly read the mood of taxpayers.” All evidence to the contrary.

Approximately two dozen people with Cornerstone walked past approximately twice as many Planned Parenthood supporters and faced them during the press conference.

The audience booed Musgrave, a former member of Congress from Colorado, and one person shouted “liar” after she accused Planned Parenthood of aiding and abetting sex trafficking.

(For the record, the Planned Parenthood sex trafficking allegation has been thoroughly discredited.)

NH Councilor is the Worst Person in the World

Last year, Planned Parenthood provided low-cost contraceptives to more than 13,000 women in the Granite State. But when New Hampshire’s all-Republican Executive Council canceled the state’s $1.8 million contract with Planned Parenthood, the clinics were forced to stop dispensing the contraceptives. 

Councilor Raymond Wieczorek, who voted against the contract, was unfazed and shot back, “I am opposed to providing condoms to someone. If you want to have a party, have a party but don’t ask me to pay for it.” His flippant response earned Wieczorek a nomination from Keith Olbermann for the day’s “Worst Person in the World!”

Mr. Privileged White Male Executive Council Members

Today we salute you, Mr. Privileged White Male Executive Council Members (Mr. Privileged WhiteMaleExecutiveCouncil Memmmmbeerrs!). Because of you, 15,000 NH women are attempting to pull themselves out from underneath that bus you so carelessly threw them under (Man, it’s dirty under this busssss). You don’t have vaginas, but that’s not stopping you from making decisions about our bodies. When STD, cancer, and pregnancies rates go sky high, don’t blame us (babies everywheerree!).

And so, Mr. Privileged White Male Executive Council Members, this vid’s for YOU:

Quote of the Day: Collateral Damage

“And if dogma trumps pragmatism and neither side budges, Indiana’s most vulnerable citizens could end up paying the price as the collateral damage of a partisan battle.”

— Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the Federal District Court in Indianapolis, on Indiana’s attempt to cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics.