By Briana Vannozzi
Correspondent
Calling on the governor to restore funding for women’s health services, advocates said the cuts play politics with women’s lives.
“1.1 million New Jersey women are in need of contraceptive services and supplies,” said Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt.
“We closed a site on practically the very first week those funds were eliminated,” said Planned Parenthood of Southern New Jersey President and CEO Lynn Brown.
Gov. Chris Christie eliminated money for family planning services from the budget in 2010. He’s vetoed every attempt to restore the funding since.
“Now I’m appealing to our colleagues in the Senate and the Assembly. Each year they have failed to rally around to override the governor’s veto of $7.5 million on the basis that the governor said it had something to do with the budget. Well now we know that is completely untrue,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg.
“I’m the first governor to speak at a pro-life rally on the steps of the statehouse in New Jersey and I vetoed planned parenthood funding five times out of the New Jersey budget,” Christie said at CPAC.
As recently as last week, the governor drew thunderous applause from conservative groups during speeches where he touted his position as the only governor in state history to cut the funding. He linked it directly to Planned Parenthood. His office didn’t return our requests for comment.
“Family planning keeps women healthy. We provide all the methods of family planning. We provide their pap smears, their cancer screenings, their breast exams. We pick up breast lumps, we refer them to specialists,” Brown said.
“Many of the women who come to Planned Parenthood actually rely on us as their primary source of health care. So for those women who may not have access to places like Planned Parenthood, they’re showing up in our emergency rooms,” said Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan NJ President and CEO Rosalyn Rogers Collins.
While the Affordable Care Act has put a dent in the number of uninsured residents, a new report shows as of 2013 there were nearly 400,000 uninsured women in the state between 18 and 54 years old. The highest is in Hudson County with 27 percent, followed by Passaic and Union each at 25 and Essex with 23 percent of the female population without insurance.
“They don’t receive screening services and then we see them later on when they have a disease that’s progressed to a point. A great example is cervical cancer screening and pap smears. We really should never see a case of cervical cancer in the developed world because if people receive pap smears we can detect it long before its cancer,” said Planned Parenthood of Central and Greater Northern NJ Medical Director Dr. Gregory Hirsch.
“I had actually had previous bad experiences at other doctors where I felt patronized,” said family planning patient Omi Singh.
So Singh felt she needed to share her story with the crowd to ensure other women have the same opportunity.
There’s no shortage of underfunded programs in this year’s budget, so this political football gets punted back to the Republican side of the aisle for their support as it’s expected the governor will veto.