By PATRICK WHITTLE
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A community of medical clinics that serves low-income residents in Maine stated it’s going to shut down its main care operations on Friday due to Trump administration cuts to abortion suppliers.
Maine Household Planning operates 18 clinics within the state and says abortions are a comparatively small proportion of its general providers, which additionally embrace most cancers screenings, sexually transmitted illness testing and contraception. The community stated it needed to minimize main care due to the administration’s transfer to block Medicaid cash from abortion suppliers together with the a lot bigger Deliberate Parenthood.
The transfer to defund abortion suppliers is driving sufferers away from their medical doctors in Maine, stated George Hill, president of Maine Household Planning. The community noticed greater than 600 sufferers in its main care practices final 12 months, Hill stated.
“Telling these sufferers we will’t see them anymore has been devastating, particularly figuring out that a few of them will discover it too tough to get a brand new supplier and may forego care,” Hill stated.
Maine Household Planning serves lots of the poor and rural areas of the state and usually receives about $1.9 million in Medicaid reimbursements per 12 months, the community stated in a press release. The community stated it notified its sufferers of the approaching main care closures a couple of month in the past. The community has about 8,000 sufferers in whole.
Maine Household Planning fought the halting of Medicaid {dollars} in federal court docket, but it surely suffered a setback in August when a federal choose dominated in opposition to restoring funding through the community’s ongoing lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration. The community appealed to the next court docket, and that authorized battle remains to be ongoing.
The Heart for Reproductive Rights filed the case in federal court docket on behalf of the community, and stated Friday it’s going to proceed to battle to revive the funding. Nancy Northup, president of the Heart for Reproductive Rights, referred to as the lack of funding for Maine Household Planning “half of a bigger technique to shut down clinics even in states like Maine that defend the fitting to abortion.”
