Tag Archives: Tucson

Summer Discounts at Select Planned Parenthood Arizona Health Centers

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Human papillomavirus, or HPV, can affect both males and females. Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There is no better time than the summer to think about your health! Planned Parenthood Arizona and its participating health centers are here to help you take that first step with our Healthy Summer Specials.

Planned Parenthood Arizona’s Hoffman Health Center (in Tucson) and Yuma Health Center are providing free pregnancy testing, now through August 31, 2012.

“We are pleased to provide free pregnancy testing to women in the community,” says DeShawn Taylor, M.D., medical director at Planned Parenthood Arizona. “We want to be there for women for their reproductive health, throughout their lives.”

Planned Parenthood also provides a full spectrum of reproductive health care for men and women — reproductive health exams, STD testing and treatment, birth control, condoms, vaccinations, information, and counseling.

As a Title X provider, Hoffman Health Center provides Tucson residents with reproductive health care in which reduced fees for services are based on the income of the patient.

“We are proud to be part of the Tucson community, offering affordable health care to the women and men who live here,” continues Taylor.

For more information or to make an appointment at the Hoffman Health Center, call 520-408-PLAN (7526), or at the Yuma Health Center, call toll-free 855-207-PLAN (7526). You can also visit us online at www.ppaz.org.

At our Yavapai (located in Prescott Valley) and Flagstaff Health Centers, now through August 31, residents can come in for half-priced exams, $50 full STD screenings (an $86 savings that includes chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV, and syphilis), and free pregnancy tests. Along with these discounted services, the public can also access the full spectrum of expert reproductive health care offered at Planned Parenthood, at affordable prices.

Planned Parenthood Arizona wants to help keep the women and men in the community healthy and happy by providing them with testing and exams that they otherwise may not be able to afford.

For more information or to make an appointment at the Yavapai or Flagstaff Health Center, call toll-free 855-207-PLAN (7526).

We’re here to help you make it a summer for health!

PLEASE NOTE: These summer specials are only available at the health centers listed here. For more information on service pricing at your health center of choice, please call a customer service representative — in Phoenix, 602-277-PLAN (7526); in Tucson, 520-408-PLAN (7526); and from elsewhere in the state, toll-free 855-207-PLAN (7526).

Ron Barber Takes a Stand for Women’s Health

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Editor’s Note: What follows is our unedited, exclusive interview with Ron Barber, the candidate who is running to complete Gabrielle Giffords’ term in Congressional District 8. Barber has worked with Giffords since she was elected to Congress in 2006, after which he became the head of her Tucson office. He is endorsed by both Giffords and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Prior to his work with Giffords, he navigated bureaucratic red tape as head of the Southern Arizona branch of the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities, advocating for vulnerable members of the community. With strong bipartisan support, and strong roots in Southern Arizona, Barber will stand for CD8 in Washington — but first, he needs your vote. The election will be held on June 12, 2012; you can also vote by early ballot.

“Our federal and state budgets should reflect our values and not the extreme positions of a few legislators.”

Please give me a little background on yourself: where you grew up, your education, how long you’ve lived in Tucson.

I have lived here in Southern Arizona most of my life, running a small business with my wife, Nancy, and helping solve community problems — whether it was heading up Congresswoman Giffords’ district operations to help people get results by cutting through federal agency red tape, or working for 35 years to look out for people with disabilities.

I was born in England, but went to high school in Tucson, where I met my wife, Nancy. We were high school sweethearts — we first started dating in 1960 and have been together ever since. I went to the University of Arizona, here in Tucson, and received a bachelor’s degree. I’ve lived in Tucson for over 50 years — my children and grandchildren all live here as well.

What women’s health care issues do you see will need to be addressed in the remainder of this legislative term and in the next?

Access to basic care is still a major issue for women’s health. We must ensure that regardless of state laws on abortions or funding, Planned Parenthood and other clinics continue to receive funds to provide basic health care to women — from cancer screenings to mammograms. Continue reading →

Special Election on June 12: Ron Barber Stands with Planned Parenthood

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It’s pretty safe to say that nearly all of the political advertisements and newspaper articles covering the Congressional District 8 race between Ron Barber and Jesse Kelly have focused on Social Security and Medicare. But, the issue of women’s health care is also critical – and one that hasn’t received much attention.

Jesse Kelly is an avowed anti-choice candidate and has received support from the National Right to Life Political Action Committee. Barber, when asked about his position on choice and women’s health care, said he has always been pro-choice and believes women’s health care decisions must be made between women and their doctors.

Ron Barber is running to finish Gabrielle Giffords’ term in the June 12, 2012, special election. Early voting starts on May 17.

“There has been too much political debate about limiting our freedoms,” he told us. “Women have the right to make their own choices about contraception and any interference from the government or employers is an affront to personal liberty.”

The debate on women’s health care used to center on abortion. It has now expanded to include the availability of contraception and the “right to refusal” –  so-called consciousness clauses that allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, employers to opt out of providing insurance coverage for birth control, and health care providers to refuse emergency care for pregnant women. Barber, as do most Americans, believes that the “availability of contraception was an issue we settled 50 years ago” and employers, insurance companies, and pharmacists should not put themselves between a woman and her doctor. Continue reading →

Planned Parenthood Services for Men: We’ve Got You Covered

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At Planned Parenthood, we’re passionate about women’s health, and indeed, our health care centers are well known for their top-notch services aimed at the female population. But not a lot of people associate Planned Parenthood with men’s health — despite the fact that we offer a wide range of services for men, ranging from those you expect (like condoms) to those you might not expect (like smoking cessation).

Planned Parenthood offers cancer screening and family-planning options for men, as well as an array of services that include cholesterol screening, diabetes screening, and even smoking cessation.

Sexually active people should be screened for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — even if your partner has negative test results, that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, so you can’t rely on your significant other to provide your STI screening “by proxy.” Especially because so many STIs are asymptomatic, it’s better to get yourself tested. We can screen and treat for STIs, as well as offer preventive vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and human papillomavirus (HPV). Most people associate the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, with females, since HPV is behind 99 percent of cervical cancers. But males can benefit from Gardasil as well. Not only will they be protecting their partners, but they will also be protecting themselves from the viruses that can cause precancerous penile lesions as well as the majority of genital warts and anal cancers.

Men’s services also include life-saving cancer screening — we can check you out for prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, or testicular cancer. We can also evaluate penile lesions, which might lead to penile cancer if left untreated. These might not be the kind of check-ups anyone looks forward to, but they represent the kind of preventive health care that can save your life — or just your money — down the road. Continue reading →

Margaret Sanger in Tucson: “Daring to Live”

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“When the marvel of the spring came to the desert, you saw the cactus and the flowering, saw the brown floor change to delicate pale yellow, stood in awe of nature daring to live without water. You were reminded of the futility of wearing out your life merely providing food and raiment. Like the challenge of death, which so many of the people there were gallantly facing, the desert itself was a challenge.” – Margaret Sanger on Tucson, in her autobiography

Margaret Sanger in 1959, with friend Grace Sternberg, returning to the United States after a trip to New Delhi, Sanger's final overseas trip.

Margaret Sanger moved to Tucson in the 1930s and soon thereafter decided to live here full time, believing that the warm climate was conducive to good health. During Sanger’s years in Tucson, she latched onto any health fad or other technique she thought might improve her health. She exercised and experimented with various diets, including fasting on juice; eating a combination of yogurt, wheat germ, and honey; taking vitamin E supplements; and eating papayas (which she had shipped from Hawaii) for their alleged “restorative substances.”

In 1949, however, Sanger suffered a heart attack, and her son Stuart, a doctor, injected her with Demerol, a recently introduced painkiller not considered addictive at the time. The next year she had a second heart attack, resulting in another long convalescence at the hospital. Her addiction to Demerol intensified; she got Stuart to write prescriptions for her, and would sometimes falsely claim that bottles of the drug had fallen and shattered, which would require further prescriptions to be written. If a nurse refused her demand for Demerol, Sanger would inject it herself. Her son tried to wean her from the drug by collecting empty bottles and filling them with a diluted concentration of the drug, slowly increasing the proportion of water to Demerol until the solution was pure water. This was effective for a while, but eventually Sanger realized she had been duped and endeavored to get her hands back on the drug. She went through other doctors, firing them when they would decrease her dosage, and eventually took to self-administering injections of pure water every 30 minutes. Her addiction, it seemed, was both to the drug itself and the psychological comforts of the injection.  Continue reading →

Margaret Sanger in Tucson: Home Is Where the Heart Is

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Margaret Sanger's home in the Tucson Foothills, circa 1941.

Margaret Sanger, and a few guests, at her home in the Tucson Foothills, circa 1941.

Editors’ note: Happy Women’s History Month! We’re excited to celebrate with you by continuing our series on the life of Margaret Sanger.

If you’ve lived in Tucson, it’s likely that you’ve passed by one of Margaret Sanger’s erstwhile residences. In the 1930s she lived in Tucson’s Foothills and by the next decade she lived on Elm Street, close to the Arizona Inn and the university. About 10 years later, she helped to design a new house in the Catalina Vista neighborhood.

In one of Sanger’s autobiographies, she tells of the pull Tucson exerted on her:

“In the winter, remembering Arizona from the time I had been there with Stuart, (I) went out again in response to the summons of the desert. My husband and I found a house near Tucson of adobe, trimmed in blue.”

This adobe house was in the Foothills of Tucson, purchased in April 1933. Sanger and her husband, J. Noah, had a famously contentious relationship and maintained separate apartments within their home; Sanger’s was on the ground floor in the front area of the house.

Though enchanted by the desert’s beauty, Sanger and her family also pinned their hopes on the climate’s supposed restorative powers. Sanger’s son Stuart had already moved to Tucson, and was hopeful that the climate would help to heal an enduring ear infection. Sanger’s husband hoped it would alleviate his arthritis (and was also drawn by Arizona’s lack of income tax at the time). For her part, Sanger sought relief from her bronchitis, and also believed the climate would put her at a decreased risk for tuberculosis. Continue reading →

Will You Be Attending the Roe Luncheon?

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Volunteers at the 2010 Roe Luncheon in Tucson

This post refers to the 2011 Roe Luncheon. Information about 2012′s event can be found on our website.

This year marks the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which recognizes a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona invites you to join us for our annual Roe v. Wade anniversary luncheon.

The Tucson luncheon is on Thursday, February 17, at the Doubletree Hotel. Our emcee will be David Fitzsimmons, of the Arizona Daily Star. We will be honoring Patti Caldwell, formerly the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona, for her years of service. We are very excited to be featuring Amy Allina as the keynote speaker at the Tucson luncheon. Ms. Allina is the Program Director of the National Women’s Health Network (NWHN). Amy is also a founding coordinator of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need, a national initiative working to make sure women’s voices are heard and women’s concerns are addressed as policymakers put the new health reform law into action. Continue reading →

One Vote Can Tip the Balance: The Battles for Reproductive Care

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David Yetman and Annette Everlove, 1977

For Kino Community Hospital, it was the end of abortion services. But for Annette Everlove it was the beginning of a career in law that continues to this day, and for David Yetman it was the beginning of his 12-year stint as a Pima County Supervisor. And for Americans, it was the beginning of a nationwide debate.

It was 1977, just four years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision. In the early days of abortion’s legality, access to the procedure was still extremely limited. There were only one or two private practitioners who provided abortion access in the entire city of Tucson.

And then there was Kino Community Hospital.

As a county-owned public hospital, Kino’s services were provided to its patients free of charge. Consequently, it was the sole source of medical care for many of Tucson’s poor. Shortly after Kino opened its doors in 1977, a Pima County Supervisor learned that the hospital was performing abortions. The question of whether or not Kino would be permitted to continue abortion services was put on the agenda. Continue reading →