Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Announces Weekend Hours

Austin, Texas – Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas recently began serving patients during weekend hours, making essential reproductive healthcare available to Austin-area patients seven days a week. Appointments are available Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 5 pm at the South Austin Health Center, while weekday appointments (hours vary) are available at the North Austin Health Center and Central Austin Health Center. The historic Downtown Austin Health Center on East 7^th street is completing renovations, and will reopen in early 2022.

Weekend availability allows busy college students, parents, and working patients to access sexual healthcare when it's convenient for them. Same-day and next-day appointments can be made at ppgreatertx.org or by calling 1-800-230-PLAN for:

• Annual well checks
• Breast and cervical cancer screenings
• A full range of birth control (including IUDs and implants)
• Testing and treatment for STIs, including HIV testing
• Pregnancy testing and options counseling
• Treatment for urinary tract and vaginal infections
• HPV and flu vaccines
• Abortion services in compliance with Texas’ extreme abortion ban
• and other essential healthcare services

“We're striving to meet our patients' needs," said Tonya Capson, Health Services Regional Director. “Being available during non-traditional office hours means we can see patients who couldn't ordinarily find time to schedule their sexual health screenings due to work conflicts, parenting, or class schedules."

For more than 85 years, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas has been a trusted source for healthcare, advocacy, and medically accurate sex education. The majority of Planned Parenthood patients are uninsured, earn incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level, and trust Planned Parenthood for affordable birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and other reproductive healthcare services.

This week Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas announced an initiative to expand access to healthcare appointments for uninsured patients at Planned Parenthood’s 24 health centers in Austin, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Paris, Plano, Tyler, Waco and surrounding communities. The patient care initiative expands access to essential, preventive healthcare services for uninsured patients based on income eligibility guidelines.

Additional resources are also available to patients seeking abortion due to Texas’ extreme abortion ban (SB 8):

• Financial assistance to reduce the cost of their medical care
• Support for travel expenses for patients forced to leave Texas (gas cards, flights and other travel and lodging support) 
• Patient navigation staff to help patients through the overwhelming realities of obtaining an abortion in Texas today
• Take-home “empowerment kits” containing emergency contraception, early-detection pregnancy tests, condoms, and information about Texas’ abortion ban are available to all patients at no cost.

“Texas’ abortion ban (SB 8) takes decision-making away from patients in such a devastating way. These resources are intended to put some health information and assets directly back into the hands of patients without political interference. This is one way we can support patients as we fight to overturn Texas’ abortion ban. True empowerment cannot happen until sexual and reproductive healthcare information and services, including abortion, are available to all Texans,” said Elizabeth Cardwell, Lead Clinician for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.

Background on Planned Parenthood Patients:

• Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas health centers provided 93,602 patient visits in 2020. 
• Texas has among the highest rates of uninsured residents in the U.S. 
• In 2020, 64% of patients served were uninsured. 
• All are welcome at Planned Parenthood regardless of insurance or documentation status, income level, zip code or who you love. 

####