Catholic-affiliated clinics, which limit birth control options, are included in a new state list of health care providers that Iowans are instructed to turn to for subsidized birth control services.

The Iowa Department of Human Services’ new list, posted on its website, also includes doctors and nurse practitioners who work more than 100 miles from the counties in which they're listed. And it includes hospitals from the UnityPoint system, which state administrators have said would be barred from Iowa’s family planning program under a new law forbidding participation by agencies that perform abortions.

The Department of Human Services’ new list of approved family planning providers covers the entire state. The Des Moines Register reviewed the list of providers in the counties that include Bettendorf, Burlington, Keokuk and Sioux City, where Planned Parenthood of the Heartland closed clinics June 30. The private agency said the closings were due to the loss of about $2 million in state family planning money under the new law.

Critics predicted that Iowa’s decision to remove Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from the state family planning program would lead to a shortage of birth control options in rural areas. Supporters of the shift predicted that plenty of other clinics would step in to provide the services.

The Department of Human Services sent an email to Medicaid recipients July 1 telling them about the new Family Planning Program and including a “find a provider” link.

Department spokeswoman Amy McCoy said the new list of approved family planning providers includes doctors, nurse practitioners and clinics that filled out a form attesting they don’t provide abortions. She acknowledged the list is imperfect. She said her department’s staff has not had time to comb through the listings to ensure that every agency on it qualifies for the new program and provides a full range of birth control options.

“We are still very much in the process of quality-assuring the list,” she said.

She said members of the program also could call her department's help line, at 800-338-8366.

In Lee County, which is home to Keokuk, the new list of state-approved family planning providers includes just one option — the Fort Madison Community Hospital. Spokeswoman Angie Budnik said the hospital has a women’s clinic that provides a full range of birth control options, including long-term methods such as intrauterine devices. Such services also are available at a clinic the hospital runs in Keokuk, she said.

“We have been able to keep up with the demand so far,” Budnik said. However, she said it was too soon to tell how many former Planned Parenthood patients would seek family-planning care from her system’s clinics.

In southeast Iowa’s Des Moines County, which is home to Burlington, the state list of approved family planning providers has five entries, including three listings for the Great River Medical Center in West Burlington. The other two entries for Des Moines County are for an obstetrician in West Des Moines, which is 170 miles northwest of Burlington, and for a nurse practitioner in Oskaloosa, which is more than 100 miles from Burlington. Office staff members for both of those providers told the Register that neither practices in the Burlington area. The nurse practitioner, Kimberly Rutledge, works in an Oskaloosa walk-in clinic that doesn’t provide birth control.

Desiree Stumpf, director of women's services at Great River Medical Center, said Burlington area agencies have met and talked about how to fill the needs of former Planned Parenthood patients.

"I feel very confident about it," she said. She added that she was unsure why some of those agencies weren't listed on the state website as approved providers.

In Woodbury County, which is home to Sioux City, 16 of the state list’s 64 entries are for doctors, physician assistants or nurse practitioners who work for the area’s Mercy hospital and clinic system. Mercy is affiliated with the Catholic Church, which opposes many forms of birth control.

"We do not provide contraceptives for the purpose of pregnancy prevention," Matt Robins, a spokesman for Mercy's Sioux City network said in a statement Friday. "We remain focused on delivering exceptional care to the patients and communities we serve."

Robins said some Mercy health professionals do provide birth control pills and intrauterine devices to treat patients with medical conditions, such as "hormonal disturbances" that could include irregular periods.

Several of the other Sioux City area providers included on the state list work for Siouxland Community Health Center, a clinic system set up with federal support. Brendyn Richards, the agency’s director of advocacy, said his clinics provide a full range of birth control services but don’t offer or even mention abortion.

Richards said his agency is capable of taking on patients who used to go to the Planned Parenthood clinic that closed last week.

“It might be a little longer wait than they’re used to,” he said.

Appointments for birth control, which were handled as walk-ins by Planned Parenthood, could take up to two weeks to obtain at Siouxland Community Health Center clinics, he said. He added that longtime Planned Parenthood patients could be forced to switch from care providers whom they’ve seen for years.

“That’s unfortunate,” he said.

Many entries on the state's new list of approved family planning providers are duplicates of the same care providers, sometimes at the same addresses.

The state’s new list includes some that are affiliated with the UnityPoint hospital and clinic system. They include Trinity Medical Center in Davenport and St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City. Department of Human Services administrators have said UnityPoint would not be allowed to participate in the state’s new family planning program because some UnityPoint hospitals provide abortions.

UnityPoint spokeswoman Teresa Thoensen said this week that the rules of the state’s new family program are unclear. She said UnityPoint leaders believe hospitals and clinics should qualify for the new program if they don’t provide abortions and if they are separate corporations from the UnityPoint hospitals that do provide abortions.

“We will be applying to DHS to allow these facilities to participate,” Thoensen wrote in an email to the Register.

Planned Parenthood leaders contended during last spring’s legislative debate that barring their agency from the state-financed family planning program would crimp Iowans’ access to birth control services. That would lead to more unintended pregnancies and more abortions, Planned Parenthood supporters said.

The Register sought comment this week from three legislators who co-sponsored the bill setting up the new family planning program. None responded.

A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman declined comment this week on the state’s list of family planning providers approved under the state’s new program.

Jodi Tomlonovic, executive director of the Iowa Family Planning Council, said she wasn’t surprised to hear of discrepancies and duplications in the Iowa Department of Human Services’ list of agencies where moderate income Iowans could obtain birth control.

“In fairness, they really didn’t have a lot of time,” she said of the department’s staff.

Tomlonovic said it could be difficult for Iowans who used to obtain subsidized birth control at Planned Parenthood, UnityPoint clinics or the University of Iowa clinics to find new providers using the state’s confusing online list.

“I think you’ll see people who were on the program aren’t going to have access. I think you’ll see a drop in enrollment and a drop in family planning services,” said Tomlonovic, whose group opposed the shift.

The list of approved care providers was posted by the Department of Human Services, which set up a new program that helps moderate-income Iowans pay for birth control and related services.

Legislators who oppose abortion designed the new program in a way that blocks public money from going to Planned Parenthood. The private agency, which had received about $2 million a year under the state’s old family planning program, closed clinics last week in Bettendorf, Burlington, Keokuk and Sioux City.

The state family planning program pays for birth control for about 10,000 Iowans with moderate incomes. Iowa’s previous family planning program was set up under Medicaid, the joint federal and state health care program. Under Medicaid rules, agencies that perform abortions may not be barred from receiving money for providing birth control.

Abortion opponents in the Iowa Legislature decided to pull out of the Medicaid sponsored family planning program and set up a separate state program. That option allowed the state to bar participation by Planned Parenthood and other agencies that perform abortions. But the move meant the state had to forego $3 million in federal Medicaid money.

Planned Parenthood supporters have contended that growing use of long-term birth control methods, such as IUDs, are the main reason unintended pregnancies and abortions have plummeted in Iowa over the past decade.