Iowa bill that would cut Planned Parenthood funding also would affect University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

A bill making its way through the Iowa Legislature would cut family planning funding from the state's largest hospital.

Josh Lehman, spokesman for the Board of Regents, confirmed Friday that as Senate File 2 currently is written - a bill gaining attention as it would take funding away from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland - the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics also no longer would be a provider.

The bill - which passed through a Senate judiciary subcommittee Tuesday - would discontinue the Iowa Family Planning Network, a federal Medicaid waiver that provides about $3 million in funding to family planning agencies across the state.

It instead would create a new state-funded program that would exclude facilities that provide abortions from receiving the funds.

To cover the program, the state would shift money from a federal block grant that pays for a variety of state programs, including child and family services and special services for disabled Iowans.

Opponents of the bill, which include Planned Parenthood, say that this bill will limit health care options for women and that providers will be unable to absorb the thousands of women who use Planned Parenthood's services each year.

Last year, more than 12,000 Iowans received services, including Pap smears, birth control and cancer screenings, through the waiver statewide. No state or federal dollars are used to fund abortions.

From 2007 to 2013, the Iowa Family Planning Network funding helped reduce Medicaid costs for deliveries and births by $50 million and averted anywhere from 6,000 to 14,850 unplanned births, according to an Iowa Public Policy Center study.

The bill now will go before the full Senate Judiciary Committee.

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