Until July 1, a low-income New Hampshire woman paid an average of $5 to fill a birth control pill prescription at any of the state’s six Planned Parenthood clinics. She might have even gotten the birth control for free, depending on her poverty level.
But since the New Hampshire Executive Council voted to cancel the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood, a woman now has to pay anywhere from $40 to over $100 for birth control pills at a regular pharmacy.
The Council, a constitutionally empowered group of elected officials, rejected up to $1.8 million in state funding for the family planning-provider — about 20 percent of its total annual funding — and stripped its authority to dispense low-cost birth control and antibiotics to uninsured patients.
‘We can’t even provide patients with antibiotics for urinary tract infections or STDs anymore,’ said Jennifer Frizzell, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. She said Planned Parenthood has had to turn away 20 to 30 patients a day who are showing up to refill their prescriptions.
‘We have to send them away with a prescription knowing that without insurance, they have to pay the full cost of that at a local pharmacy, and many patients have […]
