Quashing Family Planning

Last month the Bush administration delayed a decision on Georgia’s request for federal funds to expand family planning services for poor women, many of whom are on Medicaid, and is stalling action on requests to renew similar programs in several other states. These requests were routinely granted in past years. With the delays, announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, the administration seems to be cutting off its fiscal nose to spite its ideological face.

Public health officials in Georgia want to provide contraceptives and gynecological services to new mothers for two years after the birth of a child, rather than just during the first two postpartum months, as Medicaid rules specify.

One of the most cost-effective things the federal government does is to pay for family planning services for women who have no health insurance. This care helps prevent unwanted pregnancies, abortions, low-birth-weight babies and the health problems for mothers and babies that result from pregnancies too closely together.

In fact, federal rules require states to demonstrate that expanding family planning services would save the federal government money by preventing complications during or after pregnancy. States typically seek to extend the reach of their family planning programs by including more women than just those strictly eligible for Medicaid or by providing medical care for a longer period, such as Georgia seeks to do.

This approach made so much sense to Thompson when he was Wisconsin’s governor that in 1999 he approved that state’s request to expand family planning services. But ironically, as a Cabinet secretary, Thompson last month delayed a decision on Wisconsin’s request, along with requests from New York, North Carolina and several other states. California’s approval, granted during the Clinton administration, will expire in 2004.

The federal government, except in cases of rape, incest and life endangerment, does not pay for abortions for women who cannot afford them, so the issue is not abortion. The issue is only access to birth control.

The Thompson announcement, coming after the White House’s criticism of a report from the surgeon general urging that information about birth control be more widely available, leads to a troubling conclusion: This administration is cold to sensible attempts to offer family planning.