Seaside and Salinas’ Planned Parenthood offices have much in common. Both clinics mostly see patients for preventive health care and family planning reasons – things like STD tests, cancer screenings, Pap smears and birth control consultation.
“It’s easy to highlight Planned Parenthood as an ‘abortion clinic,’” says Lupe Rodriguez, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the local chapter, “but in reality it’s a small portion of what we do.”
One big difference: Salinas provides the “abortion pill,” while Seaside provides both the pill and the surgical procedure.
That means even if Medicaid spending is cut, Seaside’s clinic would likely remain open, because state and private funding for surgical abortion centers is strong. The Salinas clinic would be the more likely one of the two locations to close, as its budget is reliant on federal reimbursements for the suite of other health services it offers, based on statements by Kathy Kneer, president and CEO of California Planned Parenthood.
Therein lies a bitter irony: A conservative plan leveraged around banning abortion stops any number of things but that, creating fallout that affects thousands of locals who need basic health services the most. PP Salinas’ closure would displace the 6,997 patients seen there, creating a ripple effect that strains safety-net health care providers across the county.