Rick Scott’s Chopping Block: Women, Minorities and Babies
Gov. Rick Scott yesterday vetoed almost $1.5 million for a handful of community health care clinics in Florida that provide adult and pediatric primary health care services, family planning, immunizations and STD and HIV screening, among other services, to low-income and minority patients.
Scott vetoed $500,000 for the AGAPE Community Health Center in Duval County and another half a million dollars for Apopka Health Center for rural and minority health.
Apopka is a community health center that provides health care to migrant communities in Florida. AGAPE provides a range of women’s health services. Among the many serves listed, the center’s website mentions Pap smears, clinical breast exams, STD testing and treatment, family planning, birth control, pregnancy testing and maternal/prenatal care. Apopka Health Center also lists obstetrical and gynecological care as services it provides.
Together, these two line-item vetoes mean a million dollar loss in preventative care for women in Florida.
The Healthy Start Coalition of Orange County lost $200,000.
The Howard Phillip Center for Children and Families lost $200,000.
The Southwest Alachua County Primary and Community Health Care Clinic lost more than $30,000.
Coupled with an almost $1 million dollar cut in state family planning money to local governments, predominately low-income women will see a decrease in preventative health services as well as medical care after a pregnancy.