Planned Parenthood of Northern New England on Thursday announced a projected $8.6 million deficit over the next three years, which it said could threaten access to services and facilities.

The shortfall is in addition to a projected $5 million deficit for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, although audits are not yet final for the period, according to Jessica Barquist, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood’s Vermont Action Fund. 

The regional organization served more than 32,000 patients in the past year across 15 health care centers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to a press release issued Thursday. While Planned Parenthood of Northern New England plans to “maintain the status quo” at those centers this fiscal year, officials could consider closing facilities if the organization fails to secure more funding, interim CEO Nicole Clegg said during a virtual press conference Thursday morning. 

In Vermont, the announcement comes on the heels of recent legislative success for supporters of reproductive rights. In May 2023, Gov. Phil Scott signed two landmark shield bills into law: H.89, which protects Vermont health care providers from being forced to cooperate with out-of-state investigators, and S.37, which offers providers professional protections for administering reproductive care. In fall 2022, Vermont became the first state to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.

But “these laws mean nothing if people can’t access care,” Lisa Margulies, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood’s Maine Action Fund, said during the press conference.

She and other organization leaders cited the nation’s “broken health care system” as a main contributor to Planned Parenthood’s deficits. That includes, but isn’t limited to, below-market reimbursement rates from insurance companies, workforce shortages and the rising costs of supplies and pharmaceuticals in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Clegg said. 

Planned Parenthood faces unique challenges in addition to the problems that all health care providers are facing, Clegg said, including the rising cost of providing abortion services — one of the many effects that “reverberated” from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Those pressures are hitting Planned Parenthood especially hard, Clegg said, because there is rising demand for the free and reduced-price services it provides: Planned Parenthood of Northern New England saw a 10% increase in visits last year. As the cost of medical services rises, more and more people — even those with insurance — are in search of accessible care, she said. 

And there’s more demand from patients outside the region, too. Clegg said the organization saw a 7% increase in the number of patients traveling from out of state to receive care in the past year. Patients have traveled to New England clinics from as far away as Texas and Florida to receive reproductive care, according to a letter Barquist submitted to the Vermont Legislature in February. 

Because those patients receive their care for free or at a reduced cost, a heavy financial burden falls on Planned Parenthood, Clegg said. 

Those compounding challenges follow what Clegg described as “endless political attacks” on reproductive care nationwide, with “serious unknowns” looming in this November’s election.

For Vermont, that uncertainty is not a reassuring sign. The last time Planned Parenthood of Northern New England faced deficits — $2 million in 2020 and $1.5 million in 2021, according to filings with the IRS — Vermont closed five health centers in Bennington, Hyde Park, Middlebury, Newport and St. Albans. 

“While our right to reproductive care in Vermont is the most protected it has ever been and others are looking to us as the model of reproductive access and care, the sad reality is that our access to that same care is the lowest it has been in recent memory,” Barquist wrote in the letter to the Legislature.  

Currently, Vermont has seven Planned Parenthood centers, which served more than 13,000 patients last year, according to the press release. Of those patients, 54% were low-income. 

Vermont centers provided about $800,000 in free and discounted care over the course of the year, according to Barquist’s letter. To continue supporting low-income patients — especially those in rural areas with limited access to all forms of health care — Planned Parenthood of Northern New England is calling for more state funding.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England only receives state funding from Vermont, Clegg said, even though it also serves Maine and New Hampshire. That’s not enough, the organization says. According to its 990 for the fiscal year ending in June 2023, it received about $3 million in federal and state funds and $5 million in government grants — combined, that accounts for just 25% of the organization’s total revenue.

Following Vermont’s primary elections, the Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund plans to send a questionnaire to all state candidates and publish responses to help inform voters of which would support increased funding in the next legislative session, Barquist told VTDigger. 

The organization also hopes to raise funds through donations.

Thursday’s press release was quickly followed by a plea on Facebook for donors to consider setting up recurring monthly gifts. 

If there’s not enough funding to cover the deficit, Clegg said, “we could be forced to make some tough choices.”

Without Planned Parenthood’s services, the region could experience higher rates of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, more unplanned pregnancies, and increased cases of cervical and breast cancers due to missed diagnoses and a lack of preventative care, Clegg said. 

“The patients who stand to lose the most,” she said, are those who have low incomes, are uninsured and live in medically underserved communities — in short, people who may rely on Planned Parenthood as their only form of health care. 

“Without us, the most vulnerable people in our communities could face catastrophic health outcomes,” she said.