I am writing in response to the excellent editorial and summary of current access to local and regional women’s reproductive health services and Planned Parenthood’s failure to clean its own house (Herald, Mar. 2).
Being front page news for its financial and leadership blunders may push its very well-paid chief officers and board of directors to reassess their priorities so all patients receive fundamentally decent, safe, sanitary care at their affiliated sites.
I’ve long been a Planned Parenthood financial supporter and have helped females and committed couples obtain an abortion, a deeply personal choice that in my experience has never been undertaken casually or thoughtlessly.
The editorial writer is correct to suggest that perhaps Planned Parenthood’s “inflexible business model [more corporate than nonprofit in many ways] no longer fits Durango.”
Many pregnant women from our six neighboring states can afford gas money and borrow a car but certainly can’t afford a flight and motels in Denver – if Planned Parenthood’s national website is correct that “70% of its patients’ income is at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Level.”
Having an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy is a catastrophe but can be ameliorated by providing women good care. With Trump’s severing massive numbers of people from their livelihoods and thus from their health insurance, it’s likely that the one million abortions provided nationally in 2023 is likely to increase, so even more females will look to Colorado for help.
Please research Wellspring Health Access at wellspringaccess.org and consider supporting their local efforts to provide care in a safe, clean, well-lighted place.
Stephanie Moran
Durango
