Bill would have allowed up to 73,000 people to be eligible for family planning, basic health services
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in this file photo at the Statehouse.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation today that would have restored $7.5 million in grants for 58 clinics providing birth control and basic health care to uninsured people, a decision some Democrats lawmakers say they intend to overturn.
Blaming New Jersey's "unprecedented financial difficulties,'' the governor said the family planning and women's health clinic grants needed to be scrapped. But uninsured people have other avenues to get these medical services, according to Christie's veto message.
"Reproductive health care services will continue to be available in each of New Jersey's 21 counties, including Planned Parenthood clinics, local health department clinics, standing free clinics, and hospital-based clinics.''
Although the governor said he opposed the bill purely on budgetary grounds, his decision is likely to stoke an ongoing ideological debate on whether the state ought to financially support clinics run by Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions and birth control.
The money to restore the grants would have come from a $205 million state employee prescription drug account the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services says Christie had over-budgeted.
But after conferring with state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, Christie said the money transfer "will put the account below projected requirements established by the state's actuaries to ensure that all claims will be paid,'' according to Christie's veto message.
"I will not join the Legislature in putting the prescription drug benefits of state employees at risk.''
The family planning clinics provided 136,000 uninsured people last year with health screenings for cancer, diabetes and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as birth control. None of the health department grant money has been used in the past to fund abortions, and the bill Christie vetoed expressly prohibited the money from being used for that purpose.
But Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris), an outspoken abortion opponent, urged his colleagues to defeat the measure as a repudiation of Planned Parenthood pro-abortion message. Planned Parenthood operates 29 of the clinics, of which three provide abortions. During a committee hearing, he read from a pamphlet advising HIV-positive youth and young adults how to engage in safe sex.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) one of the bill's sponsors, has predicted the Democratic-controlled Legislature would override the governor's veto. The Senate passed the bill with a veto-proof majority on June 28, but the 80-member Assembly passed the measure by a vote of 42 to 22 with 13 abstentions. The Assembly would need 58 yes votes to override the governor.
"No doubt, I will marshal the votes. This will become an issue,'' Weinberg said today. "I don't want to spend the next year talking about it, but I will.''
The bill (S2139) also would have required the Department of Human Services to seek approval from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to receive $9 in federal Medicaid funds for every dollar New Jersey spends on family planning services for women earning between $29,547 and $44,100 a year, slightly higher than Medicaid typically allows. The approval would have allowed up to 73,000 people to be eligible for family planning and basic health services.