Great
News!
Medication
abortion to be offered at PPIL’s Health Center in
Springfield!
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is committed to making sure
that a full range of reproductive health care services are
available in Illinois. As a health care provider in
Springfield for over 35 years, Planned Parenthood knows that the
women of this area need access to a wider range of services
closer to home. That’s why we are pleased to
announce that in the coming months we will begin offering
medical abortion services at our Health Center in
Springfield. (See today’s article in the State
Journal-Register.)
Please show your support of
our service expansion by sending a letter to the editor of the State
Journal-Register!
After a careful assessment of the needs of our patients and
the community, we decided to expand our services to include
medication abortion so that women will have more choices
available to them. Expansion of medication
abortion to the Springfield Health Center will provide access
for women who would otherwise have to travel 100 miles or more
for care.
Each year PPIL provides more than 10,000 health care visits
for Springfield area residents. In Fiscal Year 2009, the
Springfield Health Center administered more than 994 pregnancy
tests. Twenty-eight percent of these were positive.
Sangamon County is home to some of the highest birth rates,
including teen birth rates, in Illinois. Nearly half of
all pregnancies in Illinois are unintended. And many of
the women who come to our Springfield Health Center and find out
they are pregnant request help in obtaining abortion
services.
Unfortunately, there are only four abortion providers in
downstate Illinois – one in Peoria, two in Champaign
(including PPIL’s Champaign Health Center) and one in
Granite City. The travel and time required by going to
another city can be a challenge for many women who already face
barriers to accessing health care. This is particularly
true for low-income women who do not have the financial
resources for transportation.
The women of the Springfield area deserve
better.
Take
Action!
Send a letter of support to the State
Journal-Register. Use the sample letter below
as a model when filling out the letter to the editor form
on the SJ-R website.
Comment on the State Journal-Register
website. You can register to make comments
directly on the SJ-R website on the same page as today's
article. Just go to the bottom of the page.
SAMPLE LETTER TO
THE EDITOR
Dear Editor,
I was so pleased to learn that Planned Parenthood will be
providing medication abortion in Springfield.
Right now, if a woman living in Springfield decides that
abortion is the best option for her, she has to travel to
another city. For many women this is a great
hardship. Facing an unintended pregnancy is difficult
enough. It shouldn’t be made worse by the bad luck
of living somewhere that doesn’t have the care you
need.
I’m glad that after so many years of providing quality
health care in Springfield, Planned Parenthood is expanding its
services to help even more women.
Sincerely,
]]>
