Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990 TAG: 9006050274
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GINA FEROLINO SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
It did so in one year.
The non-profit clinic provides gynecological exams, contraception, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy testing. The need for these services has caused the clinic's annual budget to grow from $84,603 in 1988 to $145,660 last year.
Since opening, its staff has served 4,500 clients and administered 1,428 pregnancy tests.
Nurse practitioners, registered nurses who have completed a one-year program in a specialty area, provide the clinic's services. A medical director at Planned Parenthood in Roanoke and an associate medical director in the immediate area are available for consultation.
Information and referral services are offered for sterilization and prenatal care and for counseling on having babies, adopting them out, abortion, and, for unmarried mothers, carrying the baby full term and becoming a single parent.
About 80 percent of the clinic's patients are ages 19 to 24, according to Megan McKewan, director of clinical services. Most are college students.
"What we're in the business for is preventing unintended pregnancies through contraception and education," McKewan said. "We're trying to reach out to people throughout the community, for instance those who are falling through the cracks financially and can't afford health care - for example, a working mom in her first job who can't afford a pap smear for herself because her kid gets an ear infection."
The clinic houses an education department stocked with videos and literature on an array of topics from teen pregnancy to date rape. Packets of information are available for $3.
"All services are confidential," McKewan said. "Minors do not need parental consent to obtain contraception."
By Virginia law, parental consent is not required for minors to obtain birth control, pregnancy testing or abortion.
"But [nationally] 75 percent of those 16 and under do involve their parents if they become pregnant," said Kathy Haynie, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Virginia. "And 55 to 60 percent of those ages 17 and 18 do the same."
Haynie, who is based in Roanoke, stressed the importance of education and prevention, noting that most teens who seek Planned Parenthood's services have already been sexually active for one year to 18 months.
"We try to work with them as best as we can," said McKewan. "If a patient is pregnant, we encourage her to involve those in her support system - parents and friends."
The majority of patients with positive pregnancy test results choose to have abortions, she said.
So far the Blacksburg office has avoided the anti-abortion protests experienced by Planned Parenthood in Roanoke.
"But keep in mind that if you're happy about the pregnancy, you're going to go to your doctor [for prenatal care], not to Planned Parenthood," McKewan said. "We see a lot of patients who know already that they are going to terminate their pregnancies."
Of those who decide to deliver, few choose the adoption route, McKewan said.
"For one thing, single parenting is much more accepted now. And many of these women feel that if they're going to go full term, they're not going to give their babies away."
A 19-year-old college student who wishes to remain anonymous, first visited Planned Parenthood at the age of 17.
"I went with my friends to get information about the type of birth control we were planning on using," she said. "We wanted information on subjects that our parents didn't discuss much. Some of us had had sex and some of us hadn't."
She had a 16-year-old friend who sought pregnancy testing through Planned Parenthood. When the test results came back positive, she recalled that her friend "felt really trapped and scared. I think her whole world passed by her. It jolted her into realizing what a responsibility sex is."
After some discussion with Planned Parenthood staff, the teen told her parents and opted for an abortion. Today, she is an honor student in college.
"The atmosphere at Planned Parenthood was real trusting. They realized it was a real crisis for her," she said. "I went with her and they never once pushed any decision on her."
She continues to obtain health care through Planned Parenthood.
The Blacksburg clinic serves patients as young as 15 and as old as 57. Fees are set on a sliding scale based on income and ability to pay.
Rates for gynecological exams, for example, range from $15 for high school students to $43 for patients who earn more than $176 a week and who support only themselves.
Birth control pills are offered to high school students at $5 per pack, and pregnancy testing rates are $6 for high school students and $8 for others.
This month, Planned Parenthood of Southwest Virginia will open its second satellite clinic in Charlottesville.
Haynie said nearly $131,000 has been raised since July 1989 to start the clinic, which will be operated similarly to the one in Blacksburg.
Both satellite clinics are administered from Roanoke.
by CNB