Planned Parenthood affiliate covering Maine faces ‘serious’ financial trouble

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 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.

Since taking office in 2018 with firm Democratic control of Augusta, Gov. Janet Mills has expanded abortion access in several ways. Just after taking office, she signed a law allowing state Medicaid funding to be used for abortions. The biggest political battle came over a 2023 law that allowed the procedure after a previous viability cutoff around 24 weeks.

Yet Planned Parenthood of Northern New England failed this year to win an appropriation for family planning services. In April legislative testimony , it noted that it gets no regular state funding and has relied on fundraising to provide services. The 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 the ardent abortion rights supporter 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. Trump recently divided with social conservatives by pushing to remove support for a national abortion ban at 20 weeks from the Republican platform. But he led the Supreme Court’s conservative shift and implemented rule changes aimed at abortion providers.

Planned Parenthood’s financial situation in the region surprised Mike McClellan, the policy director of the anti-abortion Christian Civic League of Maine, because the group’s political positions have generally been accepted in this state over the last few years.

“If they’re not getting funded, it’s because their side didn’t fund them,” he said after learning of the financial trouble from a reporter.

He also wondered about the group’s financial management. Clegg responded to a question on that topic by wondering if it would be asked of all struggling health care providers.

“​​The reality is that we have to navigate the workforce challenges, the inflation, the increased costs, the dramatic shifts and changes that have happened in health care delivery, really since post COVID,” she said. “And on top of that, we’re a political target.”