Pregancy Support Belts

Family planners cinch belts tight

By MIKE DENNISON

IR State Bureau

Family-planning clinics that serve thousands of low-income women in Montana are beginning this fiscal year with less government funding, in the wakes of cuts approved by the Montana Legislature and Congress.

“Every line item in our budget has taken a hit,” said Stephanie McDowell, associate director of Bridgercare in Bozeman, the largest such clinic in the state. “We’ve cinched down our belt so much that we can’t go any tighter.”

The Republican-controlled Montana Legislature voted this spring to cut all state and federal funds for family planning clinics in Montana, totaling $5.7 million for the next two years. The new fiscal year began July 1.

The federal funding was restored as part of a final budget deal worked out between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat.

Yet the state funding of nearly $1 million remained out of the budget and Congress reduced the federal family-planning funds by 5.3 percent this spring.

In the final analysis, the 15 Montana clinics receiving the money lost nearly 25 percent of their government funding for the next two years.

The clinics offer birth control and other reproductive health-care services to women, such as pelvic exams, pregnancy tests and tests for sexually transmitted diseases. Most of their clients are low- and moderate-income women and families who often do not have health insurance.

“They just need their annual exams and their birth control so they can plan for their families in a responsible way,” McDowell said last week. “These are people just trying to get on their feet, get a job and find something with insurance.”

The clinics offer their services on a sliding scale, with lower prices for those with lower incomes.

Planned Parenthood of Montana, with five clinics in Billings, Missoula, Helena and Great Falls, is the largest recipient of the funds and Bridgercare is second.

Other clinics receiving the money are in Butte, Hamilton, Kalispell, Miles City, Havre, Glendive, Polson, Libby and Lewistown.

Stacy James, CEO of Planned Parenthood, says the loss of funds “is a substantial cut for us,” but that the organization had planned for it.

“You can’t pull money out of thin air, but the good thing for our patients is … we knew ahead of time and we made plans to prepare for that loss with minimum impact on our patients,” she said. “We’re just tightening our belts, which we’re very good at doing here.

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