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Show Park City Comm . Clinic Headed for Funding Battle Planned Parenthood of Utah wasn't the only casualty casual-ty in the federal government's govern-ment's decision last week to give all Utah family planning monies to the state health department. Though , it had not been the target of PPU opponents, the Park City Community Clinic's grant ward was included in the lump sum given to the state. Though funded through October Oct-ober 1, the decision leaves the clinic in a serious situation according to clinic director Diana Maxell who has called a special board meeting at 6:00 p.m. on September 14 to discuss the issue. The clinic has already retained the services of Utah law professor Wayne McCor-mack McCor-mack and attorney Jeff Oritt of Prince, Yeates and Geld-zahler Geld-zahler to analyze the. situation situa-tion and take a look a legal options designed to keep the facility afloat. PPU is also considering legal action which may or may not end up involving the Park City clinic. At the heart ; of the matteris'-the'cjuestidri ' of who made the decision to stop direct funding to the family planning clinic located in the county that has the highest abortion ratio in the state. Maxell says "I wish I knew. All I know is what I've been told through rumors, that it was a decision reached by a high level in Washington." Washing-ton." Visibly disappointed and angered over the decision deci-sion she said it could effectively end the program in Summit County that "we've worked so hard to establish. We've served over two thousand patients during our first two years of operation and there's no doubt in my mind that the county's abortion rate would be even higher if we weren't here since the majority of our patients would most likely opt for an abortion if they were to get pregnant." Maxell says "I wisn I knew. Maxell's com lent appears to be a response to those who think otherwise even though Park City wasn't opposed in , ,it funding , requests by the . . r t r v United Families Foundation spearheaded by Susan Roy-lance Roy-lance ("I was aware of the Park City clinic, but did not actively prevent its funding because it wasn't in the areas where I Jive, but since I understand their practices are similar to those of Planned Parenthood I am pleased that the clinic's funding has been given to the state" notes Roylance.) While campaigning in He-ber He-ber City Saturday, Senator Orrin Hatch was asked if he knew who made the decision. "All I know is that it was made by the Department of Health.and Human Services. I'm not familiar with the Park City clinic, but if it's doing a good job and the community needs it, I don't see why the state can't with the same amount of funds help that clinic" responded the senator. The senator's statement however has some people confused. When the comment com-ment was repeated during a Park City Rotary Club campaign session, .between . - t . i : ' ' ' ' i . . i ; ' "t i Summit County Commission candidates Al Cooper and Matt Alvarez, physician Tom Schwenk reportedly pointed out that he had corresponded with Hatch's office informing them of the clinic and the need for its services requesting request-ing that its funding be continued. Dr. Schwenk is one of several physicians who contract and volunteer services to the clinic. A number of community leaders were seen buttonholing buttonhol-ing Senator Hatch during his Monday appearance m Park City. The question was the "same"! Who made the decision to not fund the clinic and why was it allowed to happen?" Roylance, herself says she doesn't know who in HHS made the decision, but she says comments that the decision was made on a higher level "are a slam at all the people who have been involved on the lower level, and all the mayors and county commissioners who participated in the A-95 reviewing process since they were a hundred percent opposed to funding Planned Parenthood." Roylance says her organization organiza-tion was actively involved in the A-95 process of PPU by notifying local officials of the deadline for input, however, she says her group had no input into what was said in the letters. "I know there were a number of Denver meetings. I don't know the dates, when they were held or what their recommendations recommenda-tions were, but I checked with Senator Hatch's office Monday (83082) to find out if they knew what the final decision was because I did know that the funding had been extended for sixty days with the explanation, that they were considering consolidating conso-lidating in the state of Utah. Wc were all aware of that and knew that that was a potential. Dr. Mason told me also that they had met with the Denver office to discuss consolidation, but when they (federal officials) found out that our state lau - : .-t 4 f . .... . J ... More Clinic Continued from Page 4A would have prohibited the health department from providing pro-viding the money to Planned Parenthood it seemed as if the Denver office was uninterested unin-terested in consolidation at that point. No one really expected it to happen to be honest. So I had called Hatch's office to see if the decision had been made since funding was supposed to be over at the end of August, which is why we tried to have our hearing scheduled before the end of August. They (Hatch's office) informed me at that time that they had been informed by HHS that the state didn't want all the money, that the federal government had wanted to consolidate and the state didn't want it. So I called Dr. Mason to see if he knew anything about that and he didn't know anything about it and what happened beyond be-yond that I can only surmise. I know that there was some communications by Dr. Mason. Ma-son. He did let me know when he found out for sure and obviously it makes a difference in what we do with the suit (lawsuit: against PPU; depending upon where the money was going." PPU and United Families may still end up in court but that doesn't explain how the Park City clinic got caught up in the controversy according to clinic officials. Maxell points out that Park City's mayor and city council has been consistently supportive sup-portive of the clinic and have included a letter of support in each year's grant application. applica-tion. However, she notes "the county commissioners and the Mountainland Association Asso-ciation of Government commission com-mission have consistently responded negatively to the grant application during the clinic's A-95 reviewing process. pro-cess. She said that at times the clinic was not informed that its application was on the Mountainland agenda. It is the county commission's commis-sion's stand that leads Maxell to believe the county commission will not approve a family planning clinic within the county. "That's the reason a group of residents decided to write the grant and apply directly to the federal government in the first place because after sixty days the commission decided to dismantle the family planning clinic operated oper-ated by the county health department. As a nurse practitioner and former Summit Sum-mit County public health nurse ideally I think every local health department should offer comprehensive family planning services on the level that we are offering them today. But unfortunately, unfortun-ately, because of the political situation within our county it has not been possible despite the overwhelming need demonstrated by both residents resi-dents and visitors." Commissioners Bill Wallin and Carl Ovard couldn't be reached for comment prior to press time, but Commissioner Commission-er Gerald Young appeared to mellow in his feelings toward the clinic though he said he had not changed his mind. "It could be that maybe I need to look at the situation again. I'm really not that familiar- with the clinic and I would be interested in seeing how many patients it serves and whether or not they're residents or seasonal or if they come from Park City or other areas of the county." Despite the commission's stand, few involved in the controversial decision feel ' the commission was responsible respon-sible for the clinic's Wash- j ington, D.C. funding out- 1 come. Senator Hatch acknowledges ac-knowledges Planned Parenthood Parent-hood of Utah had gotten "a lot of criticism from many taxpayers in Utah" but he didn't mention the clinic. Roylance admittedly headed that criticism centered over PPU's policy of serving clients regardless of age, which also applies to the clinic. Any agency receiving federal feder-al funds is required to serve clients regardless of age which has placed the Park City Community Clinic and PPU in violation of state law requiring parental consent when treating or providing services to a minor. Maxell says the clinic sees much fewer teens than PPU but she says she still sees it as an issue. "Of the few teenagers we've seen I feel those that have decided not to involve their parents have made a responsible decision. Often that decision is related to child abuse and incest problems where involving parents or trying to gain parental consent could be detrimental to everyone concerned." con-cerned." Maxell says the clinic has a policy of using a more comprehensive counseling program when dealing with teens. "By the time they come to us they are already sexually active and 1 feel we need to sit down and discuss why they're active and what sorts of problems have gotten them into their particular situation. We urge parental involvement because they are usually the teen's strongest support group." |