Experts See Disaster in Family Planning Cutbacks : Health: Lawmakers are told to expect a dramatic rise in AIDS and other diseases. Meanwhile, the outcry grows over Deukmejian’s budget action.

Funding cuts for family planning clinics in California will lead to a dramatic increase in the number of AIDS cases and other sexually transmitted diseases, several health care experts told members of the Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee on health and welfare in Los Angeles on Thursday.

“It is absolutely essential that we replace the funds if we are not to see a major epidemic of AIDS in the next decade,” said Dr. Marcus Conant, one of the state’s chief advisers in the fight against AIDS. “Family planning clinics often are the only place where people at the highest risk can get proper sex education.”

Conant was among nearly two dozen speakers, including Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Dianne Feinstein, who predicted dire consequences as a result of Gov. George Deukmejian’s decision this summer to slash two-thirds of the state’s $36.2-million family planning budget.

As a result of the cuts, 13 family planning clinics were shut down in Los Angeles County last month and services were reduced at more than a dozen others. County program directors said the cuts could affect up to 60,000 women and result in more than 5,000 unwanted pregnancies.

Health officials at the hearing said the family planning clinics are often the first line of defense in detecting diabetes, cervical cancer, syphilis, chlamydia infection, genital warts and gonorrhea.

The syphilis incidence per 100,000 population in Los Angeles County was 55.6 in 1988, nearly four times the national average. Dr. Shirley Fannin, deputy director of disease control programs for the county, told the committee that the venereal disease rate is climbing fastest among blacks--with one health district in Watts reporting a 1987 syphilis rate of 402 per 100,000.

“The examinations these people receive as part of family planning services uncover diseases before they are advanced,” she said. “With every clinic closure we lose an opportunity to reach a sizable group of needy persons in the community. Frankly, our health net is becoming frayed and developing gaping holes.”

Calling the governor’s action “a particularly outrageous cut from a penny-pinching Administration,” Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the subcommittee, said he will co-sponsor bipartisan legislation to reinstate the family planning funds when the Legislature recovenes in January. Deukmejian Administration officials said earlier that the governor would be willing to work with Democratic leaders to try to resolve their differences.