ALBANY (AP) -- Poor women seeking free cancer screenings are being turned away in some parts of New York state after this year's budget crunch forced a $3.5 million cut to a program providing them.

"We have women that are crying on the phone," said Mary Solomon, the director of the Project Renewal Van Scan, a provider that travels to offer mammograms around New York City. "It is emotional, you have to understand, we serve these women year in and year out, and now we're just basically pulling the rug out from under them."

The state is spending $21 million on the program for fiscal year 2009-2010, compared with $24.5 million the year before. That allowed 80,500 New Yorkers to get cancer screening and diagnostic testing that year.

Last year the Van Scan provided 1,200 mammograms to women in Brooklyn. This year the program only had enough funding to allocate 18 screens per month in Brooklyn from the van, Solomon said.

The American Cancer Society says providers offering free screenings project they'll perform nearly 15,000 fewer mammograms this fiscal year than last year in the Manhattan, Brooklyn and West Queens sections of New York City and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties.

State officials argue the problem is that the programs aren't doing enough to reach out to women in the newly identified high-priority group - those from age 50 to 64, and women who have a familial history of breast cancer, or have the breast cancer gene. The Centers for Disease Control recently required the state to provide 85 percent of their mammogram screenings to those high-risk women in order to get federal funding.

Six months into the state contract year, partnerships statewide have spent only 24 percent of their funds, said Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health.

"They do seem to be screening fewer women, but we do not understand why," she said.

"They had to pace themselves so they wouldn't run out this year," said Peter Slocum, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. "So they've been exceptionally careful not to overspend, and they've also had to save at least half of their money for possible diagnostic follow-ups."

Some providers, like Kindra Cousineau, the Cancer Services Program coordinator in St. Lawrence County in northern New York, said the last six months of the fiscal year can be when the highest demand comes through for free screenings, and follow-up appointments can get expensive. One patient recently had a problem getting test results from a colonoscopy, and the doctor said he wants her back in February.

"We don't even know if we'll have money in February," Cousineau said. "What do we tell her? What do we do?"

The program also pays for the follow-up testing, like biopsies, which can be hard to predict when planning a budget, Slocum said.

The Health Department said most of the women who are turned away are likely in the low-risk groups, while some providers argue that many of them fall into the appropriate age group, but there isn't enough money to go around. In the meantime, demand is growing.

"It's just really frustrating as more people are losing their jobs and their insurance," Cousineau said. "Gas prices are high, food costs are high. People can't afford to go to their (doctors) appointments."

The state's cancer screening program primarily covers mammograms, but also pays for some screenings for ovarian, cervical and colon cancers, which also affect men.

(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)