As Concerned Women for America (CWA) has previously discussed, Women Don’t Need Planned Parenthood. To expand upon this theme, we would like to provide this short fact sheet explaining all of the alternatives available to a woman seeking health care.
- Federally Funded Community Health Centers – about 11,000 vs. 665 Planned Parenthoods
And they offer far more services than Planned Parenthood does.
See this Facebook album for approximate state by state breakdowns of community health centers.
[Note: Number Statistics and more information provided by Alliance Defending Freedom and Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The 11,000 number of health centers is an estimated number of the actual locations where medicine is provided relevant to women’s health. This number adds up:
- Rural Health Clinics (RHCs)- which accept Medicaid/Medicare.
- Federally Qualified Health Clinic Service Sites (FQHC Service Sites are sometimes called FQHCs) – which receive federal grants and accept Medicaid/Medicare.
- FQHC service sites are sometimes only called FQHCs, though technically there are only about 1300 FQHCs which then run these many thousands of on-the-ground “service sites”.
- A few hundred “look-a-like” centers that meet federal care standards but don’t receive federal grants like FQHCs, but are often eligible for Medicaid/Medicare, like RHCs and other federal benefits
And then this subtotal, about 13,550, subtracts certain healthcare service sites which are not relevant to women’s health (such as a shelter or school).]
- Local Community Health Centers – that aren’t “federally qualified”
Many Community Health Centers choose not to become officially Federally Qualified. This doesn’t mean they are low quality. For example, some quality health centers feel uncomfortable with the fact that FQHCs must provide contraception and can legally refer for abortion in any case – not just in the Hyde allowed cases. (Though FQHCs don’t provide abortion, they do refer for it, and this is enough to make many Christian affiliated health centers, for example, avoid becoming federally qualified).
- 187,000 estimated Private Doctor’s offices – that accept Medicaid patients
Medicaid is a government program that, like private insurance, reimburses healthcare providers for providing services – in this case to low-income women who receive Medicaid assistance. So a medical center doesn’t have to be run by the government to see Medicaid patients. Many private doctor’s offices choose to see Medicaid patients, some accepting a certain number of Medicaid patients a month, and others having no cap on their women in need. (See Tepeyac OB/GYN as an example of one such center – this one being pro-life.)
- Pregnancy Centers – Students for Life estimates that there are 2200 pregnancy centers in the U.S.
CareNet Pregnancy Centers – 60% of which offer ultrasound medical services – say they have 1,100 centers in the U.S. and Canada, and there are many other pregnancy center networks (like Heartbeat International) and private pregnancy centers .
Also keep in mind that reducing the amount of women in need is also an admirable economic goal, which would move women out of the safety net and towards self-sufficiency. This opens up more healthcare options for women such as:
- Employer Health Insurance
When an employer provides health insurance to their employee as a benefit, this almost always covers family planning needs.
- Self-Pay Options
Women out of the social safety net are able to afford their own family planning choices. Birth control pills range in price, but, even paying out of pocket without an insurance plan, can cost less than a dollar a day and even as low as $9 a month.
Women’s Can Find Help through Online Search Maps
These are federally qualified Community Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics, which you can learn more about here.
- http://getyourcare.org/
Concerned Women for America is one of this website’s sponsors.
- http://pregnancydecisionline.org/find-a-pregnancy-center (list format) and http://optionline.org/ (map format)
Both these websites come out of a partnership with CareNet and Heartbeat and seem to list only the centers affiliated with them (there are even more centers in the country not on here!). Option Line also seems to include locations such as Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency. Many pregnancy centers affiliated with option line can forward their phones to their line at night.