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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels August 10, 2004 Planned Parenthood coming By JoNel Aleccia For the Tidings Planned Parenthood will open its first-ever clinic in Ashland by fall, officials said Monday, though the move has its detractors. "Our Medford clinic has become so overcrowded," said Paul Robinson, community relations director for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon. Health care providers in Ashland worry that Planned Parenthood will siphon scarce resources in an already-served contraceptive market. "If they start taking clients away from us, that would be unfortunate," said Peg Crowley, director of the Community Health Center, which runs a clinic in Ashland. Many of the Medford clinic's clients drive from Ashland and Talent to the site at 916 Town Centre Drive. Opening a new clinic in Ashland will allow those clients to receive services where they live, he said, including birth control advice, exams and supplies. Planned Parenthood also provides referrals for abortions, Robinson said. "We think that there's an expanding market for all the parties involved," he said. Some health care providers dispute that point, however. Viki Barbour, a Jackson County health director, said several groups already provide birth control services in Ashland. "It's not an underserved community," she said. "Clients can get the services elsewhere." Particularly affected might be services at Southern Oregon University, where the Student Health and Wellness Center contracts with the county to provide up to 2,000 reimbursed family planning visits each year. Diane Potratz, director of the center, said the federal Family Planning Project provides about 14 to 15 percent of her $1.5 million budget, funds that could be diverted to Planned Parenthood. "The concern is that Planned Parenthood will actually try to target our students," said Potratz. "I would like them to honor that our only consumers are SOU students." Critics claim Planned Parenthood's move is a strategic business shift to reach a new base of clients. The Ashland site is at Siskiyou Crossing, on the 1400 block of Siskiyou Boulevard, very near SOU. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams