9/16/2014
Planned Parenthood of Hidalgo County is changing its name to Access Esperanza Clinics in an effort to provide services to thousands more people.
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Planned Parenthood of Hidalgo County is changing its name to Access Esperanza Clinics in an effort to provide services to thousands more people.
When the Texas legislature imposed restrictions and budget cuts on providers like Planned Parenthood in 2011, not only did the agency shut down about half of its clinics in Hidalgo County, it also forced them to turn away thousands of low-income patients.
"For us down here we lost $4M. We lost seeing almost 13,000 women, who were immediately displaced and they had for two years not being able to find preventative healthcare services," said Access Esperanza Clinics Inc. CEO Patricio Gonzalez.
Women like Marisol Rincon-she was a student and is single mom of three kids, who told us Planned Parenthood was a huge help.
“They had everything at low cost and I qualified for women's Texas Health program and so then when the legislature cuts banned all that from women, Planned Parenthood that’s when my services also got cut," explained Rincon.
Former patient Stephanie Aleman said she can relate. She went because she didn't have health insurance.
“A lot of women here in the valley don’t have health insurance either. And they really relied on that- on those clinics to get their family planning services or pregnancy tests, “ she said, “So I thought it was going to be really hard for a lot of people."
“That lack of access to it really affected my self-esteem," added Rincon.
"We would hear the phone ringing-women saying, 'Can I come in? I have my state grant care' and we say, 'We're sorry we can't serve you, but we can refer you," described Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said that’s why they have officially changed their name to Access Esperanza Clinics Inc. to ensure they meet the needs of their patients and the local community.
“We feel that this is a new step, a brighter future, that we can access state grants, we can access state family planning program and we will be able to serve more low income women in our counties," explained Gonzalez.
Access Esperanza Clinics hopes that many patients will return for care now that it will be able to provide low-cost services such as sonograms, cancer and STI screenings. In fact, they hope to expand services to also provide diabetes and cholesterol testing and management.
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