OPINION: All Granite Staters Deserve Real Access to Preventive Health Care

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we are reminded that awareness alone is not enough – especially for Black women, who experience higher rates of this disease. Despite pink-ribbon promises from state leaders, these words ring hollow this October as many of the same legislators voted to advance massive funding cuts to New Hampshire’s Family Planning Program, stripping away access to breast cancer screenings for the very people most at risk.

Across New Hampshire, hundreds of women— including those who may currently have undetected breast cancer or pre-cancerous growths — have now lost access to regular screenings and preventive care because of these devastating cuts. But these cuts don’t affect everyone equally. They fall hardest on Black and brown women and on rural Granite Staters, the very communities that already face the steepest barriers to care.

According to the American Cancer Society, Black women are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer. This statistic is not an accident – it’s the result of decades of medical racism, inequitable access to quality care, and chronic underinvestment in Black health. Black women are less likely to be referred for screenings, less likely to be believed when they report symptoms, and more likely to face delays in diagnoses and treatment. Meanwhile, rural Granite Staters already drive an average of more than 30 minutes to reach a provider — and many now forgo screenings altogether due to long distances, limited availability, and loss of coverage. When funding for community-based programs like New Hampshire’s Family Planning Program is gutted, these inequities only deepen.

For many families, community health clinics are more than just providers – they are lifelines. They are trusted, accessible places where people receive cancer screenings, contraception, STI testing, and reproductive care without judgment or barriers. When lawmakers defund those programs, they are actively putting lives at risk.

New Hampshire’s leaders cannot claim to support access to health care if they simultaneously work to defund the very programs that make early detection and treatment possible. This past legislative session, members of the New Hampshire House Majority moved to fully eliminate funding for the New Hampshire Family Planning Program, a program with a 53-year track record and longstanding bipartisan support.

After immense advocacy and community pushback, the New Hampshire Family Planning Program was ultimately saved from total elimination, but still faced devastating budget cuts. With this massive funding reduction, community health clinics and providers are once again being asked to do more with less, while more patients – especially Black women – will lose access to this vital care.

New Hampshire state cuts come at the same time that the Trump administration is working to defund Planned Parenthood and other providers that deliver critical breast cancer screenings and reproductive health services. Under Trump’s  “Big Ugly Bill,” thousands of Granite Staters will see their premiums triple, lose access to coverage, or face plummeting Medicaid reimbursements — devastating community providers and worsening health outcomes for the people who need care the most.

Put simply: defunding care is a death sentence for those already on the margins of our health system. Granite Staters may lose access to preventative cancer screenings, but that won’t stop them from getting cancer.

As people whose lives have been touched by breast cancer in our families and communities, our hearts break for all the Granite Staters who will now have a harder time fighting cancer. The loss of this funding has real, life-or-death consequences for our loved ones — and its impact will be felt by families across our state for years to come.

Rather than lowering costs or expanding access, too many lawmakers are making New Hampshire a less safe, more expensive, and harder place to live and thrive.

It’s time we had leaders who understand that reproductive justice and racial justice are inseparable — leaders who invest in Black health, fund community clinics, and make good on their promises to protect care. New Hampshire deserves leaders who invest in families and communities, not strip away care when it’s needed most.