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 Health centers in Burlington, Keokuk and Sioux City will close on
June 30 and one in Quad Cities soon after as a result of losing $2
million in funds under the new measure, said Susan Allen, a
spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The four
clinics served 14,676 patients in the last three years, she said,
including many rural and poor women.
"It will be devastating," Allen said.
The closures marked the latest fallout from a continuing push by
Republicans, including President Donald Trump, to yank funding from
Planned Parenthood. Many have long opposed the organization, some on
religious grounds, because its healthcare services include
abortions, although it receives no federal funding for abortions, as
stipulated by federal law.
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives included
such a defunding measure as part of the American Health Care Act,
the bill aimed at replacing Obamacare.
Iowa's Republican-led legislature agreed in its recent budget to
discontinue a federal Medicaid family planning program and replace
it with a state program that bars funding to organizations that
provide abortions or maintain facilities where abortions are carried
out. The move cost the state about $3 million.
Texas in 2011 made a similar move that has reduced funding. A state
report in 2015 found that nearly 30,000 fewer women received birth
control, cancer screenings and other care as a result.
A coalition of 35 Iowa groups that oppose abortion have previously
argued that funding for family planning indirectly subsidizes
abortions.
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"The pro-life movement is making tremendous strides in changing the
hearts and minds, to return to a culture that once again respects
human life," said Ben Hammes, a spokesman for Branstad, who said
there were 2,400 doctors, nurses and clinics around the state for
family planning that do not provide abortions.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland said it will continue to operate
eight clinics in Iowa. They provide services including cancer
screenings, birth control, STD testing and annual checkups.
The group said in a tweet on Thursday that politicians driven more
by personal beliefs than facts were hurting access to women's health
care.
"The devastation in Iowa is a sign of what could be next for the
rest of the nation," Danielle Wells, an official at Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, said in an email.
(Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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