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AUGUSTA, Maine — The Planned Parenthood affiliate covering Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont said Monday that it projects a $8.6 million budget gap over the next three years due in part to rising demand and an uncertain political environment.
The struggles reflect problems in the health care sector since the pandemic began as well as how the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is reverberating in states like those in northern New England that have more liberal laws on that topic.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which is best known as an abortion provider and advocacy group but also performs a range of other reproductive health and primary care services across 15 clinics in the three states, is on track to report $5 million in losses for the most recent fiscal year ending in June, interim CEO Nicole Clegg told reporters.
“I would say that this is the most serious situation we have found ourselves in,” she said.
The organization has reported losses at times in recent years. However, Clegg said this projected shortfall is far higher than those that the organization has been able to absorb in the past. It could lead to service reductions across the states, though she did not say exactly when her organization would reach that point.
Clegg attributed the problems to a confluence of factors. Demand for services across the network rose by 11 percent last year, she said. Costs of delivering all types of medical services have sharply risen over the past few years, something that hospitals have also reported. She also cited “political attacks” and uncertainty around the November presidential election.
In the Democratic-led Maine State House, the organization has largely gotten its way since Gov. Janet Mills took office in 2018. She has expanded abortion access in several ways, including a controversial 2023 law that allowed the procedure after a previous viability cutoff.
Yet the organization tried and failed this year to win an appropriation for family planning services other than abortion. In April legislative testimony, it noted that it gets no state funding and has been reliant on fundraising to provide health care services. Planned Parenthood’s regional chapter gets state funding in Vermont but not in Republican-led New Hampshire.
Within the region, the political situation has been most difficult for the organization there. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu supports abortion rights, but he was criticized by Democrats for signing a ban after 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Members of his executive council have also denied family planning grants to Planned Parenthood because they also perform abortions.
Leaders nodded to the November election, saying Planned Parenthood’s political arm will be active down to the state level. The Democratic-aligned organization endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris after she took over President Joe Biden’s flagging campaign. She is set to face former President Donald Trump, who cemented a conservative majority on the high court.
