Brainerd’s Planned Parenthood clinic, a fixture here since 1972, will close Aug. 1.
Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said cuts in the nation’s 41-year-old Title X family planning funding program were the reason clinics in Brainerd and five other Minnesota locations were closing.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Stoesz said in a phone interview. “We’ve been mulling it over. That’s the last thing we want to do in Brainerd or anywhere in the state.”
The other clinics that will close are in Thief River Falls, Red Wing, Owatonna, Albert Lea and Fairmont.
In a news release, Planned Parenthood officials said the closings were prompted by a 5.5 percent cut to Title X funding. The cut is retroactive to September of last year and therefore represents an 11 percent cut to Planned Parenthood’s budget. The Title X program provides low-income women with such services as birth control, annual gynecological exams, STI testing and treatment and cervical and breast cancer screenings.
Two people are employed at the Brainerd clinic other staff members travel to Brainerd to provide services, Stoesz said. The two employees who work in Brainerd have been offered positions at other Planned Parenthood locations.
Stoesz said Title X has had broad bipartisan support, until recently, when it has become and “ideological football.” She said in a statement that the cuts were driven by ideological attacks on women’s health, not a desire to fix the economy.
Jan Anderson, director of Patient Care Services at Essentia Health Brainerd Clinic, said all of the services provided by Planned Parenthood would be available at Essentia Health Brainerd Specialty Clinic at 2024 S. Sixth St.
Anderson said the specialty clinic has some funded programs available for people who cannot afford the services but probably not all the funded programs that were available at Planned Parenthood. She said the planned addition of six physicians in primary care in late summer and early fall should help medical personnel deal with any increased demand for services currently being handled by Planned Parenthood.
Although abortions were not performed at Brainerd’s Planned Parenthood clinic it was sometimes a location that drew controversy.
An August 1994 fire gutted Planned Parenthood and destroyed three other businesses. The other businesses that were also gutted by the fire were Giovanni’s Pizza, Bresnan Communications and the office of Bruce A. Johnson, C.P.A. On July 4, 2002, five shots were fired into the office, breaking windows, damaging a door and leaving bullet holes in walls and ceilings.
Pro-life rallies routinely mark the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision by marching from the corner of Sixth and Oak streets, near the clinic, to the Historic Crow Wing County Courthouse.
MIKE O’ROURKE may be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
Comments (50)
Add commentAmen, Oakleaf! Thank you.
Amen, Oakleaf! Thank you.
Defunding
I personally would like to defund war. Can we have a party that agrees to make that a platform? It would save many people and lots of money.
IF YOU LOVE PPL THEN PAY FOR IT YOURSELVES!!
What a novel idea!! Let the pro-death LIBS put their money where their mouths are for once!!! They never give money to charities- Look at the Clintons!! The typical LIBERAL thinks the GOVERNMENT should do it!! CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!
If you think this is such a great organization that fund it!! DON"T USE MY MONEY TO KILL BABIES!
BTW
Conservative church-goers use PP, too. Don't tell anyone though. And the services are not free. I understood there was a co-pay which was determined by income, unless your insurance pays for it. But I guess it does not matter now. It is soon gone, and we can hope the Essentia Clinic fills the needs that PP was meeting.
Get Real
Let's pretend all government funding of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota South Dakota ended. The private corporation we call Planned Parenthood would lose out on about $5 million, or 17% of it's revenue. If ALL government monies were cut off this private corporation would have to operate at 83% of their former size.
Some free money did get cut, so this private corporation had choices; they could have raised prices for some services (currently they charge $15million for $17m in services), cut their lobbying budget ($3.4m), or trimmed their administrative budget ($3.8m), but this private corporation has decided to close 6 of it's 26 locations, or 23% of it's locations.
Scapegoat whomever you want, but do realize it was a private decision made by a private corporation who had more options than closing it's Brainerd branch. It looks like this move was possibly a politically convenient structural re-organization as opposed to a necessary move forced by political opponents.
we do not get to vote or veto how all of our tax $ are used.
@Lizzie -- that's not how the system works and you know it. We don't get to pick and choose. I don't want my tax dollars spent killing innocent Iraqi families, but they have been. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War I don't want my tax dollars funding death penalty warrants, but they do. I don't want my tax dollars anywhere near tea party rallies, but Rep. Bachman had no problem spending tax payer money to fund the audio system at a rally (she covered by calling it a "press conference.") There are plenty of programs plenty of us don't want to fund. We don't get to check the boxes for like some ala cart system. And I understand that there is good and bad, and I trust that it works out mostly for the common good.
about time
my tax dollars should NOT be used for this phoney org. any way you play it dollars here free up dollars elsewhere for abortions.
Sanger
Didnt Margaret Sanger have something to do with founding this outfit? Huh? What do all you big supporters of PP have to say about her? Lets look at her..in her own words
The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."
Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race
(Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)
On blacks, immigrants and indigents:
"...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born." Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor peop
On the right of married couples to bear children:
Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her "Plan for Peace." Birth Control Review, April 1932
On the purpose of birth control:
The purpose in promoting birth control was "to create a race of thoroughbreds," she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)
On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:
"More children from the fit, less from the unfit -- that is the chief aim of birth control." Birth Control Review, May 1919,
It just goes on and on. But she is a hero of the left wing loons for one reason..ABORTION. Easy as that.
wow
Sanger was pretty dang nasty. She isn't my hero.
tork
Sanger- 1919, 1920, 1921? Get real. We are in the 21st century. To say an organization has not evolved since then shows narrow mindedness on your part.
Abortion rights
I am not for abortion, but am pro-choice. I feel no one has the right to tell a woman what to do with their bodies. And, closing PP is not a good thing to do because now what happens when an unwanted pregnancy occurs? What type of abortion is going to be used? The old coke bottle, hangers, etc. I feel that if someone gets pregnant, and does not want the baby, to give it up for adoption as there are a lot of people out there who can't have children or who can do a better job of raising them than the person giving birth who doesn't want them. But if they want to abort the baby, that's their choice. We don't have the right to force them to keep the child they are carrying if they don't want it. You say, what if my mother would have aborted me, well, I wouldn't be here irritating you with my comments.
pdnet
***Sanger- 1919, 1920, 1921? Get real. We are in the 21st century. To say an organization has not evolved since then shows narrow mindedness on your part.*** That is one of the most ignorant things I have seen you post, ever. So, the founder of Planned Parenthood was a Eugenics believer, racist, fascist who believed in genocide (poor should kill their kids)...but thats OK. After all, its the 21st century!! This woman would have made Hitler proud..but thats OK. Her company has "evolved".
This is always one of my favorites..***" I feel no one has the right to tell a woman what to do with their bodies."*** How about prostitution? Hey, they are just renting out their bodies? Drugs? Hey, its their bodies!! Laws govern what people can and cant do with their bodies all the time, from drugs to prostitution to being over 18 to get a tatoo.
Good points tork
Nobody ever talks about the father's rights. The father of the unborn child has no choice in the matter. If the father wants it, too bad. On the other hand, if the father doesn't want it and the mother does, he has to pay out for her decision for at least the next 18 years.
God is good! They ALL need to
God is good! They ALL need to close!
tork
to base your opinion on what someone said 80-90 years ago is ignorant at best. Should we all continue to despise the Red Cross because of how they treated soilders in WWII, or should we realise that, as an organization, they have changed. And dean, do the deed, pay for it or keep your zipper zipped!
Oh my, pdnet15!
"to base your opinion on what someone said 80-90 years ago is ignorant at best."
Shall we go back a few thousand years and consult the "ultimate" authority (a.k.a. the bible)? Or would that be ignorant? You are anti-homosexuality because of your religious beliefs, but you can rationally and logically justify your way right around the irreligious nature of abortion; your ironic hypocrisy cracks me up, pdnet, thanks for the laugh!
pdnet
You are completely ignoring my point!
middle america
The bible is a book, not an organization. Try and stay on track. And no where have I ever said I was anti-gay based on religious beliefs. I am not anti-gay, I am anti-gay marriage because I don't think anyone should politicise their gentials and call it love!
"And no where have I ever said I was anti-gay..."
"The basic priciple of this letter is to keep religion out of any discusion concerning the "rights" of the gaymosexuals. Why then can't they keep there gay view point out of my religion. It is not bad enough that they screwed (pardon the pun) the Episcopal faith, but split the Lutherans. You want to dictate the views of the very people you don't want to hear from! I can remove religion and morals from the discussion and still come up with the same conclusion; your warped. And if that is how you choose to be, fine, but it is not a right, and don't tell me how to feel while at the same time telling me I have to accept the way you feel." By pdnet15 05/10/11 - 08:54 am
Clearly I was mistaken, pdnet15. I obviously mistook your previously made statement about your stance on "gaymosexuals" to be derogatory and bigoted. My bad.
so here's an old story that the Dispatch should examine
(although under its current editorial leadership probably safe to assume if FoxNews didn't write it first, they won't print it.)
I heard today that Brainerd now has the highest percentages of teen pregnancies in the state. So how's that abstinence or "get your birth control from your parents or pay the consequences" thing working out for us? I say us, because no doubt the county through its services will be supporting these new moms and children for years to come.
A year ago Planned Parenthood closed in Brainerd.
Today, the kids' social media boards are buzzing about the 30PLUS pregnancies at BHS. No, we are not talking about quiet pregnancies that get sent over to AEC where nobody has to see them. There are 30 pregnant girls at BHS right now.
So I'm wondering about a couple things:
Is this due to a lack of birth control access for teens?
Due to abstinence only training (umm, excuse me, but I've seen a couple ENABLE kids pregnant a couple years later).
Due to a strong religious presence in our community that also btw is lobbying to shut down women's access to contraceptives?
Is this "suck it up and accept your consequences for fooling around" karma?
Do we really want to be a community that calls our youngest members -- the babies -- consequences?
Now I'm sure that some pro-lifer might holler "well that's 30 abortions we prevented..." and now with the "every drop of [filtered word] is the seed of life" crowd gaining political power (did anyone else see the senator's comments on viagra?), who knows where this will end.
call me crazy, but back in the day, we called kids responsible when they sought out birth control and used it to prevent pregnancies. Now, we're back to the 1950's, where the "bad girls" get caught and the "good girls" (sorry, but they are fooling around too, if not more so) who do get caught quietly disappear for a while.
So, all the studies tell us that kids born to moms in poverty out of wedlock (what a gross term: wedlock) have a high tendency to ... give birth out of wedlock which leads to poverty . Gee.
What exactly did you guys hope to accomplish with the closure of Planned Parenthood?