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Sen. Teresa Pierce, D-Falmouth, is the chair of the Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Housing and a member of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.
Maine needs to step up for its family planning clinics
The Maine family planning network is a far-reaching constellation of centers that provide high-quality and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services to tens of thousands of Mainers each year. In 2022, over 35,000 Mainers received treatment from a family planning center.
What’s more, these centers provide care far beyond what is traditionally considered to be part of “family planning” services. The 61 sites across all corners of Maine offer truly life-saving care, from cancer screenings and referrals for treatment, to STI testing and treatment, to pregnancy screening and counseling, as well as vital prenatal care. Family planning centers help make healthy families.
Despite their critical role, family planning providers are hamstrung, year after year, by unstable funding. This needs to change.
The role that family planning centers play in our communities cannot be understated.
Beyond the obvious reproductive-related care offered, family planning centers are often the primary source of health care for many Mainers. Reproductive health care providers are on the front lines of Maine’s health care system. In some cases, family planning visits are the only time a patient might see a doctor for the entire year. This means that providers not only address patients’ reproductive health care concerns, but also connect them with other health care services, mental and behavioral health services, and even social services.
This is the core of what drove me to sponsor LD 1478, “An Act to Improve Women’s Health and Economic Security by Funding Family Planning Services.” Established more than 50 years ago in part by Sherry Huber, a longtime Republican legislator, Maine’s family planning network relies on a combination of state and federal funding. On the federal side, Title X funds are tangled in a political tug-of-war. Meanwhile, on the state level, family planning funding has been stagnant for nearly a decade.
As a result, funding has not been reflective of inflation, the increased cost of delivering patient-centered care, or the increased need for services. My bill would provide Maine Family Planning with $3,390,000 in annual state funding, through the 2026-2027 fiscal year. This key funding would ensure family planning centers and their dedicated providers can continue to help the folks in Maine who need care the most.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, as well as the ongoing political struggles in Washington, D.C., this stagnant state funding is nowhere near adequate. In Augusta, my fellow lawmakers and Gov. Janet Mills are doing all we can to protect and expand Mainers’ access to quality, affordable reproductive health care. Increasing financial support for family planning centers is one more way we can show our commitment to reproductive access for Mainers — especially our neighbors on limited incomes or those in more rural communities.
The investment in LD 1478 would enable health centers to hire additional staff, update infrastructure and technology, and explore innovative partnerships to meet underserved people where they’re at. It would mean keeping rural clinics — like Maine Family Planning sites in Fort Kent, Houlton, Rumford, Calais, and Dexter — open more than one day a week, which would be a huge boon to patients who sometimes have to drive long distances just to get the health care they need. Maine Family Planning centers are a vital part of our states’ health care network. I’m dedicated to advocating for them, their patients, and the funding they need to provide quality, affordable care across the state.
