Orange-based Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, which had its $300,000 health-services contract voided in March due to activist county supervisors, only to have the grant reinstated Tuesday along with regulations that will make it more difficult to attain future county funds, defiantly vowed to apply this week for the new money anyway.
“We will not be
deterred by their persistent bias against us,” said Jon
Dunn, the nonprofit's president and CEO, in a statement sent to the Weekly. “This week, we will submit
a grant proposal for next year's TSR [tobacco settlement] funds that will be fully compliant
with the policies set forth in [Tuesday's] meeting–second-level breast
health care for underserved and uninsured young women in Orange County.”
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Clockwork reported in March about evangelical ideologues on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, led by chairman John Moorlach,
aborting their funding on non-abortion-related community health
services by Planned Parenthood, citing the organization's abortion
services. More than 3,400 supporters nationwide–including activist
groups, teen health advocates, concerned parents and citizens–then called on board members to keep their personal ideology to themselves and do what
they were elected to do: represent their constituents and make
decisions that are in the best interest of the public.
The board's moneychanging came as Orange County experiences one of the
highest teen pregnancy rates in the state and an alarming increase in
teens with sexually transmitted infections. “We are in the midst
of an epidemic of STDs among young people in Orange County,” says Dunn. “There were more than 8,300 cases of Chlamydia
reported in the county in 2008, an increase of 34 percent over the number of
cases reported in 2004. More than 80 percent of Chlamydia cases are among
young people ages 15 to 29, the target population for our health
education programs and clinical services.”
County health officials quickly joined the chorus seeking
the board's reinstatement of the funds, and on Tuesday the board listened. But supervisors also approved new regulations that will make it more difficult
for community health organizations–especially Planned Parenthood, which
has been providing these services in Orange County for more than 40
years–to secure future grants tied to TSR funds.
Dunn believes the “burdensome” new regs may tear Orange County's health
care safety net.
“The Health Care Agency's recommendations are reckless and
irresponsible,” he said. “Targeting TSR funds toward the critical
health care needs of the county is just a hollow excuse to eliminate
Planned Parenthood's funding under TSR.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.