In difficult financial times, it is typical for governments to shift focus from investing in the future to sustaining in the present. If you do not serve the people today, why would they entrust you to do so tomorrow? I would argue that investing in family planning and preventative care in Maine serves both today’s needs and makes an investment for our future. So I urge Mainers to call on their representatives to pass LD 143, An Act to Improve Women’s Health and Economic Security by Funding Family Planning Services.

This bill would provide $6.18 million annually to help fund essential family planning care services in Maine. And those funds will not only protect the health of Mainers today, but will sustain the health and economic well-being of Mainers for years to come.

I can speak on behalf of the Maine family I know best, my own. Simply put, my wife and daughter may not be here as happy and healthy as they are without the family planning care offered in Maine.

My wife was not afforded access to basic reproductive health care as part of her primary care until she moved to Maine. The lack of care available to her without restrictions or privacy concerns meant she could not speak to a medical professional about her gynecological health until well into her 20s.

Since we moved here, she has found comprehensive and patient-focused care. She had our daughter at an incredibly professional and supportive hospital in Portland and they both received excellent pre- and post-natal care. Continuing to fund family planning care means my daughter and her peers will never be without these essential services. I can proudly raise my family here knowing this is a foundational value in our state.

But I recognize that for Mainers farther from our city centers, this access is much harder to come by. Family planning providers are often the first and only medical provider patients see in a year, making the family planning care network a critical safety net for the tens of thousands of patients who access their services each year.

As we see closures and staff shortages at Maine’s rural health care providers, the barriers to services are mounting. And the Mainers affected are least economically able to seek alternatives and farthest from resources to begin with. These patients rely on family planning services for primary care and reproductive care, which is vital to the continued livelihoods of their communities. LD 143 not only maintains the established providers in rural communities, it enables them to see more patients and save more lives.

LD 143 is also an investment in the economic and health outcomes of future Mainers. Spending on regular checkups and preventative care yields savings across our economy, not just in medical spending. A healthy and productive population puts more money and resources into our economy.

Also important to our aging state, it can attract young families like mine to our state in the current climate of uncertainty in other states. Talented young professionals, especially medical professionals, are seeking a place where reproductive health care is valued and protected. This bill illustrates to both patients and providers in states denying life-saving care that Maine will protect and invest in their families.

Ask your representatives in Augusta to address our current needs and invest in the next generation of Mainers by passing LD 143.