News from Planned Parenthood Mar Monte - Summer 2009

• PPMM Fights to Protect Funding as Budget Cuts Loom
  - read now.

• Federal Health Care Reform Update- read now.

• In Memory of Dr. George Tiller - read now.

• Linda Williams Named Silicon Valley Woman of Influence
  - read now.

• PPMM Receives National Recognition - read now.

• Planned Parenthood Gets the Word Out About GYT ’09
  - read now.

• Community Clinics Initiative Program Moves Forward- read now.

• Teen Success Morgan Scholarship Winners- read now.

PPMM Fights to Protect Funding as Budget Cuts Loom

We had hoped to be able to tell you by now how the budget will affect PPMM services and clients but we – like many Californians – remain uncertain of our fate. The Governor proposed to reduce our family planning funding by $7.5 million, almost 10% of PPMM’s annual budget.

Family planning services survived the first critical stage of the budget process and our sources indicate that at this time we are not being considered to be cut in further negotiations. With the help of many of you, Planned Parenthood and our partners convinced the Joint Budget Conference Committee to protect our family planning reimbursement. We educated legislators that for every one dollar the state pays for family planning, the federal government contributes nine. We made the fiscal argument that the state has prevented $2 billion in costs for unplanned pregnancies, prenatal care, undiagnosed or delayed treatment for STDs and cancer diagnoses since establishing the program. It would, for example, take just 4,000 deliveries to wipe out any annual savings generated by the cuts.

For PPMM, losing $7.5 million has devastating implications beyond our ability to provide essential family planning services. Our ability to sustain other vital and complementary education programs and health services would also be threatened.

Despite our services surviving this first phase, this is no time to rest. PPMM, our communities and our families cannot afford losing ground on our family planning funding and services.

Thank you for the calls, letters and emails you sent on short notice. Please stand ready to respond – again with little notice – to contact your legislator or the Governor if cuts to family planning resurface in final budget negotiations. PPMM is only as strong as your support for us.

As we speak, the Governor and the legislature are holding dueling press events and late night sessions with legislators assuring us that yet another deal is near. California’s financial rating continues to plummet. Absent an agreement to pass new taxes, safety net programs will be cut or eliminated. We remain vulnerable until a final budget is actually passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor.

While some leaders have tried to preserve fundamental safety net programs, differences in ideology remain barriers to consensus. Outstanding obligations to constitutionally protected education funding, state employee furloughs, reforms in public pensions, and borrowing money from cities, counties and special districts remain negotiating points between the legislature and the Governor. This leveraging is not unprecedented but it will not solve California’s current cash flow problem.

What is different today, however, is that for the second time since the Great Depression, the state is operating on “promises to pay” or IOUs. What was originally a $24.3 billion gap has now grown to nearly $27 billion due to the Governor’s insistence that the legislature make further cuts to critical programs. Meanwhile, California has little credibility to convince financial institutions, lenders and bond markets that we are fiscally sound and able to meet our obligations. State employees face a likely fourth day of work furloughs and small business and vendors who have contracts with the state are receiving IOUs as they struggle to stay afloat. PPMM is being paid in IOUs for some services and not at all for sexuality education contracts.

PPMM’s presence in the State Capitol has been visible and compelling. We are building on solid relationships with key legislators in both houses and work daily to remind them that we are serving their constituents who have lost jobs and health care coverage in this tough economy. We know that when legislators are faced with no other option than to make further cuts, they will be done with little visibility or notice. Our plan is to move swiftly and with certainty to protect access for our clients. After all, when all else fails, PPMM is the safe place for essential services and with your help we will continue to provide them to the people who need them most in these difficult times. 

Federal Health Care Reform Update

Maybe you think that because we have a pro-choice president and a Democratic majority in Congress, we can safely assume that Planned Parenthood’s mission will be an important part of federal health care reform. Right?

Wrong.

Signals from both the White House and the Congress suggest a reluctance to stand firm on a full range of reproductive health coverage for women, even though most women with private insurance have that coverage now. Not just abortion but also contraception has been labeled controversial.  There is already convincing evidence that we will have to work extremely hard to protect the coverage we have and expand it to women who don’t have coverage at all.

Planned Parenthood’s goals are straightforward: We want to ensure coverage for comprehensive reproductive health care benefits, and we want essential community providers, such as Planned Parenthood, included in health plan networks. Starting this month, several Congressional committees are meeting to hammer out a series of bills that will address health care reform.

We had our first victory when Senator Barbara Mikulski’s Women’s Health Amendment  was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the health care bill passed the committee last week. But the bill passed by a 13-10 vote, split along party lines, and Senator Mikulski’s amendment – which provides coverage for women’s preventative health care and ensures patients’ access to essential community providers – passed by the narrowest of margins, 12-11. There still is strong pressure against us:

• Comprehensive reproductive health benefits may be on the chopping block in the Senate Finance Committee, including coverage for abortion services.
• There is building momentum among Republicans to take away existing benefits, including denying women access to the trusted providers of their choice.
• There are more than 30 amendments being introduced in the Senate to weaken access to health care.

This comes on the heels of an assault on women’s health care earlier this year when Congress stripped optional family planning benefits—crucial to women’s ability to work—from the stimulus bill.

The good news is that the House health care bill introduced last week includes language that will help protect family planning in California. But we are not in the clear yet. Forces who oppose women’s reproductive rights will be attacking every women’s health provision in the bill before the final vote. We must make it clear that access to women’s health care in health care reform is non-negotiable.

 “Reproductive health care is over 75% of the primary care needed by women of reproductive age,” said Linda Williams, CEO of  Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. “We must not allow the White House and the Congress to accept a label of ‘controversial’ for key parts of that care and deprive women of access.”

It is also very important that all of us let legislators know how vital essential community  providers are for women in this country. Women must not be left with fewer options and less coverage than we have today in the guise of “reform.” Women’s health care is basic primary care for women, not an add-on or a luxury.

For close to a century, Planned Parenthood has provided crucial health care for women, and our health centers are the primary entry point into the health care system for millions of Americans. As the recession grinds on, even more women are turning to women’s health centers for basic care. Those of child-bearing age already spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men.

More than 97 percent of what Planned Parenthood Mar Monte health centers provide is preventive and primary care, including well-woman exams, cancer screenings, contraception and prenatal care. Real health care reform and coverage can only be achieved if women have access to trusted community health centers, such as Planned Parenthood.

We need you to help us make sure that our legislators know this while they are crafting bills that will overhaul the health care system for all of us.
   
This is not a time to sit back and assume our friends in Washington will eagerly address our concerns. A final vote on health care reform is expected in September, and we must be vigilant between now and then.  “We have to advocate for women clearly, consistently and assertively,” Williams said. “Remember, during the Clinton administration we didn’t lose ground but we gained very little.

 “We have another chance for progress – but only if we seize it.” 

Here are a few snapshots of desperate, heartbroken mothers-to-be and the hero who came to their rescue in Wichita, Kansas: 

• A New England woman met Dr. George Tiller when she was in her third trimester of pregnancy and a routine ultrasound showed that her baby had a rare, fatal condition. She flew to Wichita because Dr. Tiller was one of the very few doctors in the country who would perform a late-term abortion. Grief-stricken, the woman wanted to spare her baby more misery. Dr. Tiller was there to help.

• A Missouri woman met Dr. Tiller when an amniocentesis revealed, halfway through her pregnancy, that her twin babies were dying. Because she was in danger of having a ruptured uterus, her husband drove her to two Midwestern clinics, but neither would terminate the pregnancy. Finally, the woman arrived at Dr. Tiller’s door. Again, he was there to help.

• A woman who lived outside of Kansas whose 21-week-old fetus had just been diagnosed with a terminal defect met Dr. Tiller when she found that no doctor in or near her state would perform an abortion. Dr. Tiller spent many hours with the woman, and her husband remembers the doctor gently lifting her into a wheel chair after the procedure. “You’re just fine,” he told her. As always, he was there to help.

Dr. Susan Robinson, one of the abortion providers who works with Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, spent more than three years practicing medicine with Dr. Tiller, shuttling between Wichita and California. “Not only did Dr. Tiller offer the epitome of good care to our patients, but also he maintained a setting in which patients reliably felt surrounded by what he always said were the over-arching principles of the doctor-patient relationship; kindness, courtesy, justice, love and respect,” she said. “He was the best old-style doctor, never in a rush and always putting the patient’s welfare above everything else.”

Lynne Randall, head of Planned Parenthood’s Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS) remembered Dr. Tiller as the consummate family physician. “He would address his patients and their families first in a suit and tie. He would thank them for coming to see him. He acknowledged that they were there at his clinic in Wichita because of their hopes and dreams for their future and for their future and current families,” she said. “He was the first person I ever heard frame an abortion in that context. He always addressed women with the utmost respect.”

Treating his patients with respect and trusting them to make their own heart-rending decisions was a quality that had put Dr. Tiller in the line of fire for many years. He was a regular target of death-threats and had been shot in both arms by an anti-abortion “protester.”

With Dr. Tiller’s death there is one less safe and caring place for women and their families in distress. The Guttmacher Institute reports there has been a 40 percent decrease in abortion-providers nationwide in the past 25 years. Since 1993 six doctors who provided abortions have been killed by anti-abortion zealots in what can only be described as acts of terrorism, and all the murders were committed when a pro-choice administration was in the White House.

Linda Williams, CEO of PPMM, is one of many determined not to let Dr. Tiller’s sacrifice be in vain. “We can best honor his memory and his legacy by consistently following his example,” she said.

At Dr. Tiller’s funeral service, a floral wreath bore the sign “Trust Women.” It was a fitting tribute to his legacy and a message we must continue to deliver to those who, unlike Dr. Tiller, refuse to respect the fundamental reproductive rights and lives of women.

The husband of the woman Dr. Tiller had gently lifted into the wheel chair in his Wichita clinic that day wrote a blog post to The Atlantic magazine in June, recounting how his wife had phoned him weeping when she heard about the doctor’s murder. The man recalled how caring Dr. Tiller had been and how resolute he was in his convictions: “I remember him firmly stating that he regarded the abortion debate in the US to be about the control of women’s sexuality and reproduction.” In other words: Trust women.

Linda Williams Named Silicon Valley Woman of Influence

How many CEOs of non-profit organizations have not only been able to help them survive but thrive during the bleakest economic downturn since the Depression? That’s what Planned Parenthood Mar Monte CEO Linda Williams has done over the past year.

And that’s the reason Linda was honored this spring as one of the San Jose Business Journal’s 100 Women of Influence. In the Journal’s second-annual special supplement, published March 6, Linda was named as one of the women who have had the most profound impact on Silicon Valley’s community.

This did not come as a surprise to PPMM staff and board chairman Cole Wilbur, who nominated Linda for the award. After all, she led PPMM through eight years of federal funding cuts in a political climate that was openly hostile to women’s health priorities and reproductive rights. Under her leadership, PPMM was able to expand health services, such as contraception, STD testing, cancer screening and rapid HIV-testing, to an extremely diverse patient population in regions ranging from Santa Clara County to the poorest communities in the Central Valley to northern Nevada.

Her most recent triumph was helping spearhead the defeat of California ballot Proposition 4, the dangerous initiative that would have required girls younger than 18 to notify their parents if they wanted an abortion. For the third time in four years, Linda was able to raise the awareness – and money – that launched a statewide campaign to let voters know this initiative would put our most vulnerable teens at risk.

Because of Linda’s commitment to women’s health, her knowledge of public policy and her extraordinary fundraising and fiscal management skills, hundreds of thousands of women in Silicon Valley and beyond have received excellent, affordable health care. Even more families who have lost jobs and health insurance will be able to receive health care because of her leadership.

Congratulations to PPMM’s remarkable woman of influence.

PPMM Receives National Recognition

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte received the 2009 Affiliate Excellence Award for Community Education at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) National Meeting held in Houston, Texas in March. The Community Education category honors innovative, replicable programs with demonstrated positive outcomes for participants.

PPMM’s Teen Success program started in 1991 in Santa Clara. After replicating in seven key regions throughout the affiliate, PPMM decided to share the program with other affiliates across the country. Currently, there are 21 groups operating throughout PPMM and 10 groups in other Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide. Thanks to the positive outcomes demonstrated by Teen Success over the past 18 years, PPMM has secured funding to offer PP affiliates throughout the country the opportunity to replicate Teen Success. To ensure that affiliates have ongoing support, PPMM convenes staff for a 2-day annual Teen Success Stakeholders conference that focuses on skill-building and creating a learning community among replication partners.

Teen Success is a cornerstone of the Education services within Planned Parenthood Mar Monte because it targets very at-risk teens who, without intervention, face a 1 in 5 chance of a repeat pregnancy before completing high school. The program focuses on educating and changing behaviors among participants, and provides a long term (at least one year) intervention where changes can be documented. PPMM is thrilled to work with talented staff from our nine replication partners who implement the program with help from individuals and foundations alike that want to support vulnerable teen families.

In addition, the Association of Planned Parenthood Leaders in Education (APPLE) recognizes outstanding accomplishments by affiliates and education leaders. This year, a new award, the Big Apple, was created to recognize an outstanding Planned Parenthood educator or trainer who spends the majority of her/his time providing direct services.

The 2009 Big Apple award was given to Pedro Elias, Coordinator of the Male Involvement Program (MIP) in Fresno. Pedro was nominated because he provides leadership to staff and models professional conduct for participants, peers and community providers in the Fresno area. Pedro strives to empower learners and understands the many challenges that the young male participants face. Over the years, Pedro has developed a variety of methods for teaching the MIP curriculum and is an effective presenter in many venues.

On a routine basis, young men (who are also former program participants) return to the Fresno education office to re-connect with Pedro after being away for several years. The young men have often had a life experience that has shown them ways to apply the lessons learned while they were participants in MIP. They return to share the positive outcomes that resulted from MIP and their association with Pedro.

Planned Parenthood Gets the Word Out About GYT ’09

In April, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte participated in a nationwide campaign to encourage young people to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Get Yourself Tested (GYT) ’09 was a month long collaboration among Planned Parenthood, MTV, and Kaiser that targeted youth through public service announcements and online social networking, in the community, on college campuses, and in health centers across the country.

The materials used popular texting language to appeal to younger audiences, who are those most likely to have an STD. One in TWO sexually active youth will have an STD by 25 years of age. And many won’t know it because some STDs don’t have obvious symptoms.

PPMM staff from Public Affairs, Education, and Medical Services promoted testing in all 33 health centers and held 25 outreach events with our community partners and activists in April.

The campaign kicked off on April 1st with the world premiere of the MTV film “Pedro,” the true story of Pedro Zamora an inspiring HIV/AIDS activist who died at the age of 22 in 1994 after being the first HIV positive cast member of MTV’s reality show, “The Real World.” PPMM hosted screenings of the film with coalition partners, health center staff, and community members in Fresno, San Jose, Stockton, and Reno and then engaged audiences in discussions about the importance of education, advocacy and action to prevent the spread of all STDs.

PPMM used Spanish language materials and worked with community partners such as Fresno Barrios Unidos and the Modesto Latino Caucus at events such as the University of Reno’s Minority Week Health Fair to reach out in a culturally appropriate manner to young Latinos about the importance of open communication about STDs.

And that was just the beginning. For another 29 days staff, student activists and volunteers in California and Nevada tabled at festivals, college campuses and coalition events with GYT condom packages, information about local PP health centers, and popular stickers and pins with catchy texting phrases such as “OMG GYT” (Oh My God, Get Yourself Tested)’ and “BRB GYT” (Be Right Back, Get Yourself Tested).

Dozens of activists participated in the campaign and in California thousands of condom packages and hundreds of health center location flyers were distributed. In Nevada more than 2,000 residents received education and services information and dozens of free STD testing vouchers brought new clients into the health centers. The campaign was a great opportunity to spread the word to online supporters about PPMM satellite services, highlighting 5 locations across the affiliate that offered GYT information and materials to young people who came in to get tested.

Nationally, 71 Planned Parenthood affiliates and state offices participated in the GYT ’09 campaign, engaging more than 13,000 participants in 393 outreach events and reaching hundreds of thousands of people online.

You can still check out GYT ’09 at the GYT ’09 web site.

Community Clinics Initiative Program Moves Forward

Funded in July 2008 by the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI), a joint effort of the Tides Foundation and the California Endowment, the Pajaro Valley Health Action Team (PVHAT) in the Coast Region has brought together people with differing viewpoints about pesticide exposure and its effects on the reproductive health of farmworkers in the Pajaro Valley of California.

A collaborative group representing farmworkers, agribusiness, academia, environmental health, public health, pesticide activist groups, and farmworker advocates has been determining the results that the project will accomplish. The collaborative met three times from February to April of 2009. At a working session on June 17th, the group reviewed available data about the effects of pesticide exposure on mothers and children. Based on this review, the collaborative determined specific community interventions that will help address these issues, which include development of social marketing materials; partnering with the organization that conducted the research to influence public policy, advocacy, and community awareness; and drafting a Farmworker’s and/or Reproductive Bill of Rights.

Although the collaborative was initially conceived as a local, grassroots effort, the breadth of the collaborative has drawn organizations outside of the Pajaro Valley such as University of California, San Francisco’s Project on Reproductive Health and the Environment; Physicians for Social Responsibility in San Francisco; and Oakland’s Worksafe, extending its reach and reinforcing the critical nature of this topic within the community. PPMM staff involved in this effort are thrilled by the opportunity to foster community building around such an important health care issue.

Teen Success Morgan Scholarship Winners

Being a teen parent can be difficult and scary. PPMM’s nationally recognized Teen Success program provides a safe place for pregnant and parenting teens to receive guidance and support. Through the combined approach of education, skill-building, and group support and interaction, the Teen Success program focuses on assisting each teen in developing self-esteem, confidence, and decision-making skills that will ultimately lead to life planning, including completion of education and increased self-sufficiency.

The Morgan Scholarship Fund was launched in May 2000 with the purpose of providing financial support to the graduates of Teen Success who have chosen to further their education and/or acquire specialized trade skills, thereby improving the quality of life for themselves and their children. In our fall edition we profiled many of last year’s Morgan Scholarship winners – the stories that follow highlight more amazing young women who, through determination and dedication, have been accepted into college or other post-secondary education programs with the help of Teen Success and the Morgan Scholarship program. Keep an eye out for more stories about this year’s winners in the next edition of our newsletter.

Gloria
Gloria’s life started to go downhill fast when she was only 14. She was drinking, taking drugs and getting into violent fights at school. By the time she came to Broadway High School in San Jose and entered the Teen Success program, she had an infant son and her baby’s teenage father was in prison. But with the help of Teen Success, she turned herself around. She learned how to be a responsible parent, write a resume and get a job, and she became committed to completing her education. Gloria is the first member of her family to go to college, and she is planning to study nursing. In her application for the Morgan Scholarship she wrote, “I think that I can help others by sharing my struggles and showing them that if I can do it, they can too.”

Rachel
Rachel was already becoming a success at San Jose City College when she applied for the Morgan Scholarship. She had been through the Teen Success program where she learned the importance of finishing her education and being able to support herself and her baby son on her own. The $1,000 Morgan Scholarship she received the year before helped her to pay for her text books and campus parking permits. These are the kind of expenses that many students take for granted but can be huge hurdles if you’re struggling to pay tuition and raise a child. Rachel has appeared at many local events to spread the word about Teen Success. Her life philosophy is a shining endorsement for the program: “I know that by continuing my education, I will be able to set a good example for my son about the love of learning. I have big dreams and very high expectations for myself.”

Salina
When she graduated from Wilson High School in Santa Clara, Salina was planning to attend Foothill College and study to be an ultra-sound technician. But that goal was far out of sight when Salina first came to the Teen Success program. She thought then that being a teenage mother meant there was little hope of a happy future for herself and her daughter. Then the program taught her the importance of finishing high school and mapping out a life-plan for herself. She told the Morgan Scholarship selection committee that she never thought she would be able to graduate from high school, but Teen Success proved her wrong: “It is a great program for girls, and it puts so much hope and determination into your attitude and soul.”

Chantel
Chantel was a sophomore in high school when she got pregnant and her life went off track. She wanted to party with her friends instead of staying in school. When Chantel joined a Teen Success group in her home town of Watsonville, the other teen mothers told her why she needed to stay in school and be a responsible mother to her son, Andrew – and she got the message. She went on to get her GED and enrolled at Cabrillo College. Thanks to Teen Success, she is ready to prepare a promising future for herself and Andrew.

Christina
One of the first things that 19-year-old Christina learned from her Teen Success group in Watsonville is that she and the other teen moms were not, in her words, “doomed to work at McDonald’s or Burger King for our whole lives.” The program taught her to have faith in herself and know that she can make a bright future for her 4-year-old son Damian. She began the program when she was 17, and now she is attending Cabrillo College where she is studying to become a medical assistant. A two-time Morgan Scholarship winner, Christina credits Teen Success for helping to turn her life around and giving her the opportunity “to follow my dreams instead of becoming just another statistic.”