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Show Summit Family Planning Clinic Jeopardized By County Officials of abortation as a means of birth control, which is something we truly don't want to see. Say this same couple chooses to have the baby and keep it when it comes. Statistics prove that young people who have children early have a higher Please (urn to page 9A Summit County's controversial contro-versial Family Planning Clinic Clin-ic is in jeopardy of being forced to close it's doors if funding is not approved at the August 21 meeting of the County Health Board. The clinic opened in April after a petition was circulated circulat-ed by county residents asking for this service in their community. Since April there have been six clinical sessions with a total of 28 patients treated. A recent telephone survey conducted by the County Health Dept. revealed an overwhelming 84 of the county's residents resi-dents polled supported such a clinic. Still, the fate of the clinic rests on the Board's decision, a board who at the last meeting, July 17. did not have enough members to form a quorum' and vote. One Board member. Dr. Wayne Bosworth of Coalville states: "My experience with these, clinics in the past has been bad. I donTknow what has happened here in the past three months, but my experience with these in the valley was bad. It was a good place for "youngsters to go with no permission from parents and get birth control pills. It's a lifestyle I don't approve of. If these people are truly medically indigent. I would treat them at my private office for no charge. This (federally funded) program pro-gram is just the old tax and spend rountine that's been going on for years. Just because someone throws a carrot at us is no reason for us to nibble at it." County Commissioner Bill Wallin agrees: "I don't believe it's economical for government to get into that part of life. 1 don't see a need for them anywhere that the government govern-ment supports them." The proponants of the clinic disagree. Bob Snapper. Snap-per. County Health Director, feels there is a strong need for this kind of preventive public health care. And he feels that ultimately it means less dollars spent from the federal government. He explains ex-plains why: "Family planning is for the health of the mother as well as the health of the child. The attitude of 'when the baby comes, we'll keep him' is not a valid means of family planning. The clinic offers information on family planning as well as providing services. In terms of cost effectiveness, let's take a young couple who have failed to use any kind of contraceptive and have an unwanted pregnancy. This leads to a potential increase "The telephone survey and the petition indicate the community wants and supports sup-ports this service. We know from our experience we are seeing patients who were not seeing private physicians before. One reason is the kind of time the nurses and Doctors have to explain things in a clinic. Another is anonomity; many people when dealing with family planning prefer to do so in clinic setting. We already have $10,000 worth of supplies and specialized equipment, if we don't receive the funding I don't know what will happen to them." more family clinic Cont. from page &A rate of divorce, they tend not to finish school, the rate of unemployment among them is higher and there are more of them that become dependents de-pendents on welfare. And take this one step further, the children that are born to these families that are not wanted, face higher instances instan-ces of child abuse. That brings us right back to family planning. It means making good personal care available. In this situation you have to look at the indirect long term moneys that are really being saved." The clinic currently offers a variety of personal preventive preven-tive services.. Included are pap smears, pelvic and breast exams, pregnancy tests, fertility counseling, VD testing, vaginal infection diagnosis and treatment, sterilization counseling and referral and birth control. The average age of the patients using the clinic is 28 years old. 76.7 of those patients are Park City residents. Mayor John Green has sent a letter of support on behalf of the Park City Council: 1 "The Park City Council would like to go on record as endorsing and urging the support of the Summit County Family Planning Program." said Mayor Green. And Shirley Smith, Assistant Assist-ant Director of the Park City Chamber of Commerce, also sent a letter of support in which she expressed the Chamber's views: "We feel that the clinic provides a vital and necessary neces-sary service to area residents and we appreciate its existence. exist-ence. I hope- the Summit County Board of Health will favorably consider making the clinic an ongoing ser-vice. ser-vice. Dr. Tom Schwenk of the Park City Family Health Clinic and the physician who has attended all but one of the clinics, agrees with the need for a Family Planning Clinic: |