Governor’s Family Planning Budget Cut Denounced as ‘Callous’ Action

Gov. George Deukmejian’s deep cut in the state budget for family planning was denounced Friday as a “callous and uncaring” action that could cost taxpayers $265 million annually in expenses resulting from unintended pregnancies and births.

The budget cut is expected to curtail or eliminate a wide array of services--including examinations to detect cancer--for 235,000 women who will have nowhere else to turn for their care, the program’s director said.

Margie Fites Seigle, executive director of Planned Parenthood in Orange and San Bernardino counties, estimated that the governor’s action will deprive 25,000 women in Orange County of the medical treatment and birth-control services they have been receiving.

“He is balancing the budget on the backs of poor women . . . ,” Seigle said at a news conference in Santa Ana that was called after the budget cuts were made public. “I don’t know how anyone could be so cruel.”

Deukmejian’s budget veto also represented a devastating blow to feminist groups still reeling from Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states greater leeway to regulate abortion. Family planning providers contended that Deukmejian’s action, ironically, will lead to thousands of additional abortions for California women whose pregnancies could be avoided with proper contraceptive care and counseling.

But anti-abortion activists applauded the cuts as justified because, they said, the state-supported clinics have failed to prevent pregnancies and instead have relied increasingly on abortion as a form of birth control.

Some abortion opponents, including Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), said the family planning program brought the budget cut on itself. Roberti claimed that the clinics have encouraged abortions.

The $24.1-million cut sliced two-thirds from the $36.2 million the Legislature had approved for the state Office of Family Planning for the 1989-90 fiscal year, which began July 1. This cut came even as Deukmejian approved 99% of the Legislature’s nearly $50-billion budget for all state operations, granting budget increases to virtually every other major program.

Deukmejian addressed reporters in a brief news conference as he signed the budget in his office Friday, but he declined to explain why he singled out the family planning program for such a drastic cut.

A spokesman for the governor said the cut was needed to maintain the budget’s $1.1-billion “prudent reserve” for emergencies.

The only other clue to the rationale behind the governor’s decision came Thursday in Los Angeles when Deukmejian said in comments after a speech that the family planning program had been ineffective and would be better funded by private sources.

The Office of Family Planning, part of the state Health Services Department, is best known for providing birth-control services through contracts with private organizations such as Planned Parenthood. Agencies that use the state money are permitted to counsel pregnant women about abortion but may not use state funds to pay for the procedure.

Other Services

But the family planning budget also provides other services for poor women, including Pap smears to detect cervical cancer, breast exams and tests for sexually transmitted diseases and the AIDS virus.

Last year, the program served 471,000 women through more than 500 clinics, according to Jerome Hansen, director of the office. Hansen said the budget cuts would most likely be distributed across the board by simply reducing the number of women served.

“You’ve got 235,000 women who no longer have access to that care,” Hansen said, referring to the estimated number of people the program no longer will be able to serve. “It’s not clear where they’re going to get that care, if they are.”

Seigle emphasized that groups such as Planned Parenthood have nothing to do with abortion.

Planned Parenthood, a nationwide confederation of independent local organizations, dispenses medical care mainly to woman who are living at or just above the poverty level, Seigle said. The services include gynecological care, cancer screening, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy testing and birth control.

“If this is (the governor’s) way of attacking abortion, it is absolutely ludicrous,” she said. “There is no doubt that there now will be additional unwanted pregnancies” and a consequent increased demand for abortions. The Orange County branch of Planned Parenthood, which has clinics in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo, Garden Grove and Upland, is operating on a $1.5-million budget, about a third of which comes from the state and federal governments. Under the cuts, the organizations will lose about $220,000 in state funds.

Planned Parenthood’s typical patient is a white woman in her early 20s who is not pregnant and is employed part time and therefore has no health insurance, Seigle said.

Marcia Vickery, executive director of Orange County Center for Health in Anaheim, said the $149,800 in state funds her center will lose “just about entirely wipes us out in that (family planning) area,” which handled about 2,800 patients last year.

“People don’t realize how incredibly cost-effective this program is,” Vickery said. “Sometimes these are the only times these women seek medical treatment, and we’re able to screen for cancer, diabetes, hypertension.”

She said the center is not involved with abortion, other than to answer questions about it when asked by patients.

She said the cuts will not only cripple the center’s birth-control effort, but will eliminate the center’s program of sending teen-age mothers to schools to tell students the realities of teen-age motherhood.

Ron DiLuigi, assistant director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, said the state cuts will reduce the county’s revenue by $333,000. “How we’ll deal with that, I don’t know,” he said. “The only option to cutting out programs is asking for county dollars, and the competition for county dollars is frantic. There aren’t enough of them to go around now.” Sandy Snyder, manager of the agency’s maternal child health program, said about 17,000 women a year had been seen at the county’s four clinics in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Westminster.

The effect of the cuts won’t be known until next week, Snyder said, but she said it is certain the program will be reduced in some way. With private clinics cutting back as well, “I’m afraid these women won’t have any alternative resources.”

She said the family planning clinics are aimed at women earning no more than twice the official poverty-level income. That means single, childless women earning no more than $997 a month or a single woman with two children earning no more than $1,667 a month.

Snyder said the county clinics, too, have nothing to do with abortion. Typically, patients at a county clinic receive a physical assessment, birth-control counseling and birth-control devices or pills.

Two other private Orange County organizations--the Huntington Beach Community Clinic and the Laguna Beach Community Clinic--will be affected by the cuts, but officials there could not be contacted Friday.

Norma Clevenger, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said a University of California study concludes that for every $1 the state spends on family planning, it saves $11 in other costs that would result from unintended pregnancies and births.

‘It’s Ridiculous’

Under that formula, the $24.1-million cut would amount to about $265 million in added costs to the state.

“It’s ridiculous to assume that this action is going to do anything except increase the need for abortions in this state,” Clevenger said. “It is callous and uncaring.”

Daniel M. Weintraub reported from Sacramento and Steve Emmons reported from Orange County.

STATE BUDGET SIGNED

A $49.3-billion budget is signed by the governor. Part I, Page 1

O.C. PROJECTS CUT

About $4 million for county items is vetoed. Part II, Page 4.