{"id":168178,"date":"2017-07-24T18:52:41","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T22:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=168178"},"modified":"2017-07-24T21:35:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T01:35:36","slug":"federal-health-centers-exceeded-planned-parenthood-cancer-screenings-iowa-nebraska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/federal-health-centers-exceeded-planned-parenthood-cancer-screenings-iowa-nebraska\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa and Nebraska women get more cancer screenings, contraceptives from federal health centers — not from Planned Parenthood"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reports on patient services at Planned Parenthood<\/a> in Iowa and Nebraska indicate that federal health centers outperformed the abortion<\/a> corporation on patient numbers and on overall vital health services like cancer screenings. Congress is currently debating whether taxpayers should be forced to pay half a billion dollars annually to Planned Parenthood. Some state lawmakers (like those in Nebraska) seem to be either refusing to say how they will vote, or are wavering on whether they would redirect those monies toward federal health centers.<\/p>\n

Recently passed legislation in Iowa is a step ahead of the federal proposal and reroutes $2 million away from Planned Parenthood. In May, according to the Des Moines Register<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Gov. Terry Branstad signed a $1.7 billion\u00a0health and human services appropriations bill <\/a>that calls for the\u00a0Iowa\u00a0Department of Human Services to discontinue the federal Medicaid family planning network waiver, foregoing about $3 million in federal funding. Instead, the state will use about $3.3 million to recreate its own family planning network so that it can prohibit the funding of clinics that provide abortions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Planned Parenthood v. FQHCs<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood’s website<\/a> reports that for the most recently reported year, the organization saw a total of 26,937 patients in Iowa and 6,975 in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

In contrast,\u00a0federal health centers listed under the Health Resources Services Administration\u2019s website (HRSA<\/a>) serve a wider array of health services and saw 184,520 patients in Iowa<\/a> and 76,504 in Nebraska<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n

While Planned Parenthood operates just 14 centers in those two states,\u00a0there are 168 Rural Health Clinics and 14 Federally Qualified Health Centers which provide services at 60 sites in Iowa alone, according to data published<\/a> by Rural Health Info Hub.<\/p>\n

In Nebraska<\/a>,\u00a0there are 139 Rural Health Clinics and seven Federally Qualified Health Centers which provide services at 42 sites in the state.<\/p>\n

Cancer screening services<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Cancer screenings at federal health centers far outnumber those performed by Planned Parenthood centers in Iowa and Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood’s most current online statistics say that in Iowa<\/a>, the organization performed 13,716 cancer screenings, and 3,228 in Nebraska<\/a>.\u00a0In contrast, 50.6 percent of the 184,520 patients seeking care at Iowa<\/a> federal health centers and 54.9 percent of the 76,504 patients at Nebraska<\/a> federal health centers received cervical cancer screenings alone.<\/p>\n

Contraception<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

A recent study<\/a> by the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood\u2019s former \u201cspecial affiliate<\/a>,\u201d revealed the following:<\/p>\n

Iowa<\/strong> –\u00a0In 2015, 12 out of 46 counties in Iowa which offered publicly funded contraception services had at least one Planned Parenthood center, while 20 counties had at least one FQHC site that provided these services. Guttmacher reports that there were no Planned Parenthood centers located in 34 counties. In addition, Planned Parenthood served fewer contraception clients than FQHC sites in 1 of the 12 counties where a Planned Parenthood facility was located. Just 14.7 percent (13 out of 88) of publicly funded family planning centers in the state were Planned Parenthood centers.<\/p>\n

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Planned Parenthood versus FQHC contraception Care 2015 Nebraska and Iowa<\/p><\/div>\n

Nebraska<\/strong> – In 2015, 2 out of 27 counties which had publicly funded contraception care\u00a0in Nebraska had at least one Planned Parenthood\u00a0center, while 11 counties had at least one FQHC site that provided contraception services. This means that there were no Planned Parenthood centers located in 25 counties. In addition, Planned Parenthood served fewer contraception clients than were served by FQHC sites in half of the counties which had Planned Parenthood facilities. Just 3.5 percent (2 out of 56)\u00a0of publicly funded family planning facilities were Planned Parenthood centers. Planned Parenthood served 24 percent of contraception clients, while FQHC sites served 34 percent.<\/p>\n

Affiliate: Planned Parenthood of the Heartland<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

In 2012, the entire state of Iowa as well as centers in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, were under the oversight of the Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPOH) affiliate after Planned Parenthood of Southeast Iowa (PPSI) merged<\/a> with PPOH. The affiliate now operates centers in 12 centers in the state of Iowa and two centers in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

As Live Action News has previously reported<\/a>, in 2016, Nebraska\u2019s state auditor accused Planned Parenthood of the Heartland of improperly spending federal funds on abortion services in 2015. Omaha.com<\/a> noted:<\/p>\n

A recent report by Nebraska State Auditor Charlie Janssen determined that Planned Parenthood misused at least $3,500 in public money for physician fees, staff salaries and pathology work related to placental and fetal tissue [all included in abortion work].<\/p>\n

The money in question originated from a federal family planning program administered by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Federal law specifically prohibits the program\u2019s funds from being used for abortions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Decreasing patients\/increased government funding<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Strangely, despite a decrease in patients and services for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the affiliate’s government funding has gone up.<\/p>\n

This trend follows a national trend previously documented<\/a>\u00a0by Live Action News, in which Planned Parenthood\u2019s services in areas such as contraception, Pap tests, cancer screenings, and breast exams have decreased while government funding and abortions are increasing.<\/p>\n

Annual reports for the affiliate show that in 2012<\/a>, government funding totaled 10 percent ($2,673,281) of the affiliate’s revenue.<\/p>\n

By 2016<\/a>, government funding had climbed to almost 16 percent of the affiliate’s overall revenue with taxpayers sending $3,151,851 to the abortion corporation from those four states.<\/p>\n

This increase in federal taxpayer dollars came despite a 17 percent decrease in patients<\/strong> and an overall drop in health services.<\/p>\n

Decreasing services<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n

Services at Planned Parenthood of the Heartland are also decreasing.<\/p>\n

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Planned Parenthood of the Heartland decreasing services<\/p><\/div>\n

Between 2012 and 2016:<\/p>\n