Family Planning offers services to Katrina evacuees

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From: Family Planning Health Services, Inc.
September 14, 2005


To Wisconsin Public Health Officers and community health providers:

Many Katrina evacuees left everything behind – including their medical records and supplies. Our board of directors would like to help insure that the victims of this tragedy who come to Wisconsin receive the reproductive health care they need to prevent unintended pregnancy or untreated sexually transmitted infections.

FPHS, working with the Wisconsin Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, has established an Emergency Contraception (EC) Hotline [phone]) to assist women in need of EC. EC is effective for up to 120 hours after unprotected intercourse.

Hotline staff will also enroll eligible women in WI’s Medicaid Family Planning Waiver on the phone and help them identify a reproductive health care provider so they can receive immediate confidential care at no cost. Waiver participants what are medically eligible can receive three cycles of hormonal birth control and condoms immediately from FPHS or through an appointment with a local Medicaid Family Planning Waiver provider.

So, please encourage those in need to use the EC Hotline [phone]). The service is not 24/7 at this point, but we routinely check the message service on off-hours to be sure that care is provided in a timely way. For evacuees who are not eligible for WI’s Medicaid Family Planning Waiver, FPHS will provide EC, condoms and foam at no charge.

Reproductive health care is not always the first thing that comes to mind in a crisis situation, but it is a critical primary health care need. We know too well the consequences of unintended pregnancy to a family faced with economic uncertainty and personal hardship.

Sincerely,


Lon Newman
Executive Director

[sybylla]

1. I absolutely adore Lon Newman

He's a reproductive rights hero.