Women’s health center still in the red

BOULDER – A loophole that some family planning providers used to safeguard their state funding did not work for the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center, so local donors, and city and county departments are providing additional funds to offset the center’s loss of $44,000, the entire amount of funding provided by the state.

Boulder Valley lost its state funding, says Cindy Parmenter, spokeswoman for the state health department, because the health center’s Executive Director Bobbie Anderson hadn’t provided sufficient documentation that its family planning and abortion services were separate. The Colorado Constitution, since 1984, says state funds “directly or indirectly” cannot be used for abortions.

Jane Norton, the state health department’s executive director, has said she opted to seek new bids for state family planning contracts because the contracts had not been reviewed in 20 years. Critics of the decision, however, counter that the review was the result of Gov. Bill Owens’ campaign promise to the Christian Coalition that he would cut funding for family planning clinics providing abortions.

To date, Boulder Valley, a non-profit organization, has raised $15,000 to make up for the loss. The Boulder County commissioners then voted Dec. 1 to provide an additional $13,000 on top of the $48,620 they regularly provide to Boulder Valley. County Commissioner Jana Mendez calls the state’s ruling “outrageous.”

“We’ve always contributed to them, and when you have a $40,000 loss and you support the work of that organization, you certainly don’t want to see health services to women discontinued in your county,” Mendez says. “It’s not something we’re just going to stand by and let happen.”

The Boulder city council at a Dec. 21 session also will consider a proposal for additional funds from the city’s health and human services department. Susan Purdy, director of the city’s housing and human services department, says the department has identified $20,000 in additional funds above the $72,471 that the city regularly provides. City and county governments aren’t held to the state’s ruling.

Lawsuit filed

The state health department ultimately provided funding for 22 providers after the providers formed separate entities for their abortion services. Boulder Valley was the only center in the state to lose funding, although Anderson says the center had formed a new corporation, called Boulder Valley Women’s Choice, to provide abortions and family planning services. Local attorney Sandra Younghan is president of Women’s Choice, which is now forming its board of directors and management team.

Anderson says when Boulder Valley submitted its grant for state funding in early September, directors were to sign statements saying that they didn’t provide abortions. But later Anderson says she got a letter that further stipulated that centers affiliated with abortion providers were to submit additional documentation.

Anderson says those that weren’t affiliated with abortion providers could just say so in a letter, which is what Boulder Valley did. Apparently, that was not good enough, she says. “From me, they expected the additional points of clarification. I am not affiliated with an abortion provider by state statute. The Colorado state statute says that an affiliate is one organization that could exert control over another.

“These are separate and distinct organizations. They have separate boards of directors.”

Now, Boulder Valley and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Inc., which was recommended for state funding and is the only provider in some of the state’s rural counties, have filed a civil suit against the state health department to overturn the ruling.

“Had we lost state funding it would have had serious implications on cancer screening, birth control and responsible sex education for 15,000 men and women who obtain reproductive health care from Planned Parenthood,” says Ellen Brilliant, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Inc., who adds that state funds help pay for services to those who can’t afford it.

Critics decry decision

Anderson says the state health departments ruling unfairly puts her clients at a disadvantage and adds that state auditors already had found that state-funded family planning clinics had other means for funding abortion services. Still, Anderson says that Boulder Valley will provide services – with or without state funding.

“Even with the loss of funds, I’m committed to expanding services,” she says. “If I don’t get the money from the governor, I’ll get it someplace else.”

Boulder Valley provides family planning services to 3,000 women per year with about 70 percent of those women paying nothing for the services. “They make under $8,500 per year,” Anderson says of the women aided from state funds. “They are at 150 percent of the poverty level or below.”

It costs $161 to provide a year of family planning services, which include annual exams, Pap smears and contraceptives. Anderson says the state covered about 40 percent of that cost. The rest came from the city, the county, foundations and private contributors.

County officials and legislators have since asked the state health department and Gov. Owens to overturn the state health department’s ruling.

“Ms. Norton’s decision is misguided and unfortunate,” says Congressman Mark Udall in a Nov. 10 letter to Owens. “The (Boulder Valley) center provides family planning and education services that prevent abortions. It seems to me that the administration would support efforts that would reduce the number of abortions performed in our state.”

Chuck Stout, executive director of the county’s health department, says the issue is larger than the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center. “For any hospital in the state that accepts Medicaid and has state funding, how is that hospital to prove to (Norton) that their state monies aren’t used for paying the electricity bill in an operating room where therapeutic abortions are performed? Are hospitals going to be held to the same standard?”

Although the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center isn’t the only place in the city that provides family planning services, Stout says other facilities already are overtaxed and wouldn’t be able to provide services for all of the people who go to Boulder Valley.

“Every one of our providers for the low-income and medically indigent are working at absolute full capacity and are still not meeting the need that is out there,” Stout says. “Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center needs to continue to provide services, and we, as a county, certainly need them to do that.”