As election season ramps up, one thing is clear: Reproductive rights and access to essential care is a top motivating issue for voters. Yet attacks on our rights and attempts to restrict access keep coming, and the support needed to ensure Mainers continue to have access to this care is rapidly eroding.

Because of a significantly broken health care system and never-ending political attacks, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England estimates a deficit of $8.6 million over the next three years. This deficit is driven by systemic failures within the health care industry, which has for decades undervalued the care we provide and the people who rely on us. The COVID-19 pandemic, a payment reimbursement system that stigmatizes basic health care for people who may need access to birth control and the loss of abortion rights at the federal level all combined to create an unsustainable reality.

Providers are being asked to do more with less while facing the impacts of rising supply costs, staffing shortages, increased demand for free and discounted care and reimbursement rates that haven’t kept pace with true costs. For Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the expenses don’t end there. To ensure we can continue to offer the care our patients need, we are forced to devote time and resources to fighting political attacks and investing in increased security measures related to anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and demonstration.

I am grateful to the majority of Maine’s lawmakers and to Gov. Janet Mills, who listened to providers, patients and voters to pass strong laws, particularly in recent years. However, those laws will not stop people from trying to take away our basic rights. Our Maine Action Fund works hard every legislative session not only to keep Maine moving forward with proactive policies to protect access to care, but to defeat proposals that seek to take our rights away.

Last legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill to provide essential ongoing funding for statewide family planning services, things like appointments for birth control, STI testing and gynecological exams. Unfortunately, while L.D. 1478 passed multiple legislative hurdles, it did not receive funding, leaving Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and other providers of essential, life-saving family planning care without this critical state partnership. Investments like this are proven to save money: research shows an estimated savings of $4.93 for every public dollar invested in family planning services.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England operates four health centers in Maine. In an average year, 10,000 Mainers come to us for care, and approximately 60% have low incomes. Across our three-state region, PPNNE provided $14 million worth of free and discounted care in the past two years. Without the free and discounted care PPNNE provides at 15 health centers across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, the most vulnerable people in our communities face catastrophic health outcomes. In 2022, when faced with similar budget concerns as today, PPNNE closed six health centers. These communities are still feeling the impact of these closures.

I remain hopeful. A majority of lawmakers voted for L.D. 1478, recognizing the unmet need here in Maine and the importance of a state partnership that works to serve our state’s most vulnerable, which in turn serves every Mainer. I am proud that our health centers have been able to provide essential care to tens of thousands of Mainers over many years. What motivates us is knowing that Mainers value this care, and Mainers know how to weather difficult storms. Mainers won’t allow our rights to be eroded.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is doing everything we can to remain a safe harbor for anyone who needs us in the midst of devastating storms. We are resilient, like all Mainers, and with adequate partnerships that recognize the value of Mainers having access to essential health care, we will continue to offer this care to anyone who needs it, no matter what.