PLANNED PARENTHOOD COLUMBIA WILLAMETTE PURCHASES PROPERTY FOR EAST PORTLAND HEALTH CENTER

The Elsie H. Hillman East Portland Health Center will be located at 14601 S.E. Division St., which was previously occupied by Duke’s Country Bar and Grill. It will eventually replace PPCW’s Southeast Portland Health Center located at 3231 S.E. 50th Ave. Construction is slated to begin this summer, with the goal of being completed by the fall of 2019.

PPCW announced last November that the Henry L. Hillman Jr., Juliet Ashby Hillman and Summer Lea Hillman Foundations have generously committed $1 million to create a safe and welcoming place for people to receive affordable, high-quality and respectful sexual and reproductive health care and education.

“It took time and careful consideration to find the right location, but we’re confident this site is perfectly situated to be an anchor in East Portland,” says Sita Symonette, PPCW Board Chair. “The new location is further east than our Southeast Health Center to better serve the needs of the growing Portland metropolitan area. This new location will allow us to expand new programs and services we are already piloting, such as telehealth, to better reach patients in rural communities. We will also strengthen relationships with our community partners, to reach people with limited access to sexual and reproductive health care and education.”

PPCW Interim President & CEO Anne Udall adds: “Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette is committed to providing patients with high-quality, confidential and nonjudgmental care. We’re incredibly grateful to the compassionate and courageous supporters who strive to ensure that patients have access to the reproductive health care they need.”

The center will be named after Elsie Hilliard Hillman, mother and grandmother, respectively, of Portland philanthropists Henry Hillman Jr. and his daughters, Juliet and Summer. “Elsie,” as she was known to everyone, was a beloved political and civic leader in Pittsburgh who passed away in 2015. She dedicated her life to promoting gender equity in politics and to investing in causes that help women, LGBT people and racial minorities. Henry’s brother and sister are also generously supporting this project through their foundations, Audrey Hillman Fisher Foundation, Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation and William T. Hillman Foundation.

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Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette (PPCW) is the largest nonprofit provider of sexual and reproductive health care and youth education programs in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Since 1963, PPCW has successfully carried out its mission of providing, promoting and protecting access to quality reproductive and sexual health care. Each year, more than 55,000 women, men and teens visit one of PPCW's health centers. PPCW provides a wide range of education programs and healthcare services, including lifesaving cancer screenings, birth control, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, emergency contraception, gynecological check-ups and Pap tests, breast exams, pregnancy testing and options information, and health counseling. For more information visit PPCW.org.