Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced the closure of four family planning health centers on Monday as a result of the state legislature's elimination of funding to the health care provider.continue at HuffPo
The clinics in Beaver Dam, Johnson Creek, Chippewa Falls and Shawano, which serve approximately 2,000 patients, will close between April and July of this year. Planned Parenthood says that it is the only provider of reproductive health care in each of those four communities.
“Women are going to have to drive even longer distances just to get basic health care like wellness exams, cancer screenings and birth control,” said Deb Bonilla, vice president of patient services for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “We are doing all we can to ensure that women get the care they need, but in some instances the resulting barriers to care will make health care access very difficult.”
Gov. Scott Walker (R) and the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a budget in 2011 that eliminates public funding for low-income and uninsured patients seeking reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood, the largest provider in the state, because some of its clinics offer abortions. The budget cuts defunded nine family planning health centers, which provide birth control, cervical and breast cancer screenings, annual exams, STD testing and treatment, Well Women Exams, pregnancy testing, and HIV testing. [to which there are other charities(if we can call the billion dollar a year industry a charity) who offer these services]
Planned Parenthood said it plans to continue providing those health services in its 23 remaining centers across Wisconsin.
4 down, 23 to go.
HT Scotus
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6 comments:
Coooool
I'd love to have the names of the local charities who offer these services to women who will be affected by the closures. Do you know what they are?
Nevermind - found them :)
Women in Johnson Creek and Beaver Dam can get free women's reproductive health screenings and help from the Alpha Life Center in nearby Watertown (alphalifecenter.org). For women in Chippewa Falls, there are numerous free women's health clinics in close by Eau Claire including, ApplePPC (http://www.applepcc.org/), or head to Rice Lake for the Pregnancy Help Center there (http://www.pregnancyhelpricelake.org). Those in Shawano have a bit father to g0 (40 mins), as the nearest free clinics are in Appleton or Green Bay. However, there are MANY of them there who will help you including: The Hope Center (http://www.thehopecenter1316.com/) and Assurance Women's Center (http://assurancewomencenter.org/) in Appleton and the A&A Alexandrina Center in Green Bay (http://www.gbpregnancyhelp.com/)
"youth minister" Krisedu? I am assuming that has to be in a "mainline" Protestant context?
Nope, I do all high school formation (including Confirmation) for two Catholic parishes in WI.
I'm going to be generous in presuming there was absolutely nothing in their decision to maximize the impact of this decision - such as, say, choosing the four clinics that would require the longest drives to alternate providers. That would be far too conniving, would it not? ;)
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