[00:00:03] Speaker A: K Mud podcast presents.
Good evening and welcome to the show. This is global stuff. My name is Jimmy Derschlag. If you haven't been listening over the I hate to say how many years, many, many years we've been doing this show in which I try to, and I think usually succeed, getting people doing important work, important issues that affect all of us locally, globally, and in other ways. And I'm very pleased to have on the show today two guests who are part of our regional Planned Parenthood of Northern California. We have actually the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California, Gilda Gonzalez.
Welcome to the show, Gilda. So glad you could make the time to be with us.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: And we also have Anna Meldrum, who I have now on my list. I've got to get this clarified, Anna, because it seems like now you're the interim regional center director for the northern region. Is that correct?
[00:01:17] Speaker C: Hi there. Yes, that's correct.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Because I know you were the director of our most local to this station, the Eureka Planned Parenthood. And so you're now overseeing seven health centers, including Eureka, reading, Chico, Ukaya, Clear Lake, Santa Rosa, and San Rafael. And also Gilda Gonzalez.
We have, what, 20 counties that you're overseeing with 17 physical clinic sites and one virtual site that people use. Do I have my numbers right?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: That is absolutely correct.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: And that's such a wide area to cover. I know that consolidate, I don't know exactly when that consolidation happened in my many years here. For years, it was six Rivers Planned Parenthood in our region. And I guess there's been that consolidation to cover the northern counties. You have been the CEO since 2017 and came on board even before that. Can you tell us a little bit? Gilda, we'll start with you about your background and how you came to, to where you are now with Planned Parenthood.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yes. Thank you. Well, it started when I was in college in the eighties, and I actually had my first Planned Parenthood experience at the Phillip that I now have the honor of serving as a CEO. So I walked through the doors of our health center based in Concord in Contra Costa county, and I never forgot that experience. And I know for a fact that the services that I received really set in motion my ability to finish my college education. I'm first generation low income to go to college. And what ensued was several decades of being in government positions and in political positions and also having run another nonprofit in the East Bay. And so it led me to going to planned parented Northern California in 2014 the first position I had was senior VP of external affairs. And prior to that, I really reflected on my career and I really knew that the next decision I was going to make was a position that really, really promoted all things feminism and also abortion access. And then nine months later, the senior VP position appeared in my inbox as an opportunity and I jumped at it. And I have never looked back since then.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: And Anna, your background, I know you're a Humboldt state grad, and unfortunately, your college doesn't exist anymore. Now it's Cal Poly Humboldt.
But in fact, we just had you. I doubt if you heard it. We just were covering this protest sit in that there's kind of a confrontation happening up there right now with students who are protesting the Gaza invasion and kind of coming up against authority. So we just had live coverage from their radio station and some of the people involved with that. Not that that has to do with our topic. Not directly, anyway.
So your Humboldt county spent a lot of time in Humboldt county, and tell us about your background and how you arrived in your position.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: Yeah, so I moved to Humboldt county over 30 years ago. I came here to go to Humboldt State and graduated with a social work degree. During that time, you know, I came to Humboldt State as a young aspiring feminist and was able to have an opportunity to volunteer at six Rivers Planned Parenthood back in the early nineties. And I, after being there and going through their volunteer orientation, it became a goal of mine to work at Planned Parenthood. That's what I wanted to do. And so I volunteered up until about 2008 there on and off, and then began working there full time. I did that for six years, left for five to go work for public health, and then was grateful for the opportunity to come back to PP Norcal as a center director in Eureka.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: And then recently you got this appointment as the interim director and taken on more responsibilities even.
[00:06:07] Speaker C: Yep, that's correct. Yeah. When my supervisor went on leave, I was able to step into this role of interim regional center director. And it's been a wonderful learning experience.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So is that something that may become permanent or you don't know that one yet?
[00:06:27] Speaker C: Oh, I'm not sure. I don't know.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Maybe that's the wrong question to ask. I'm not sure.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: She's doing a great, great job as the interim. We're all very proud of Anna.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Well, you both have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of work to do that's so important in our communities. And one of the things I think when people think of Planned Parenthood, especially if they're not familiar or haven't used the services, that abortion is the first thing that comes to mind. And certainly that is a topic that you can't escape these days in any newspaper, any media. It comes out front. But, you know, Planned Parenthood does so much more than that. And I think it's really important for you to talk about, you know, I know there's family planning and reproductive health, but talk about the services that you do offer in your health centers.
[00:07:24] Speaker C: And.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: I'll ask Anna to take the lead on that.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. There's so many services that we offer.
I mean, some of the main things that we do that we see patients for our birth control services, we do quite a bit of STI screening, or as people would think of it, as STD screening.
We do a ton of preventative services. So breast cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, immunizations, including HPV vaccines, we do emergency contraception planning for pregnancy. We do infertility services.
We're fortunate enough to have a behavioral health department, and so we're able to offer some counseling to people.
We, of course, offer medication and surgical abortion, as well as menopause management, prenatal care at certain clinics. It's not at every clinic.
Prep and Pep, the pre exposure prophylaxis and post exposure prophylaxis for folks who are trying to prevent HIV or who have been exposed to HIV.
We have telehealth services, and we, of course, treat and test for STD's. And then at some of our centers, we do vasectomy services.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: And I'll also just add, the latest and greatest is that we have wind down our prenatal programs at the select sites, but we have been doing those for a little over a decade. But yes, we've had to wind down some of those services, and in partnership with a county in the Bay Area who will be taking those over permanently.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: And do you do. I know there's a lot of people you mentioned, and you actually offer behavioral health services as well. I know I'm very involved here with people, low income people, especially homeless. Do you do outreach as well to people, or you just get referrals, then people are able to come in who need those kind of services.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: So we have actually a community health worker program, and it's primarily based in our Bay Area counties. And so we are able to connect with people out in the community and in different venues. But primarily, what Anna was alluding to is that we also select sites that we have behavioral therapists there, and they could our health center staff can do a warm handoff to the behavioral health specialists, depending on how the patient wants to receive services. So there's multiple ways that we go about connecting, connecting with patients and providing them with the care that they need.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: And what services do you think are the most used services that you offer in general?
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Well, I think in general, it's all preventive, and I'll let Anna break those down.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: Yeah. So the top, like, the top things that we see patients for are STI testing and as well as contraception services. So, and that's across the board, like IUD's implants, birth control pills, and then, you know, and when I'm talking about STI tests, I'm talking about testing for things such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HIV.
And, you know, the list goes on. But those are our top two that we see patients for.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Yes, you're talking about STI, sexually transmitted diseases.
And, of course, we tend to think of planned parenthood as a service for women primarily. Do you just deal with women clients?
[00:11:25] Speaker C: No, we see all people, all patients of all genders and ages.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: And I noticed also in looking at that, you also another controversy. I'm sure we'll be talking much, much more about abortion and what's going on with that in the country as an important issue. You also do offer gender affirming hormone therapy, which is another controversial topic. So is that something that's, like, a difficult thing to do, or how do you incorporate that?
[00:12:03] Speaker C: So it's mainly done through telehealth. And when you say difficult, I wouldn't say it's a difficult service to provide.
And it hasn't been at the top of the controversial services that we provide.
But it is definitely a service that is utilized frequently, and I think we've been able to make it more accessible by having people utilize telehealth. And so they don't have to necessarily come into our centers. They can just do their appointment over the phone.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Well, in reading. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And also add that we really are seen as the premier provider for sexual reproductive healthcare, and we pride ourselves in approaching all our work from the highest level of compassion and high quality. And so to Anna's point, that it isn't controversial, nothing that we do, none of our services are controversial in our mind.
And so patients come to us because they know that they will be served in a manner of respect. There is no stigma in our work, and we really approach every patient from the standpoint that they really understand who they are. And they understand what it is that they need, and we are here to provide them the care in accordance to that.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: I appreciate you clarifying that. I don't mean to imply that that's generally controversial. I just mean it seems to be seen that way by certain segments of the public and certainly keying in on that as a focus.
But I think if the way you put it is very important, and I see it, again, I wouldn't say controversial, but it seems to be, there is a struggle because there's so many states that are trying to limit the access to those kinds of services.
I just saw something. It's, you know, it's this bathroom mentality, which to me is ridiculous, but it seems like that keeps coming up in all of these different places where who gets to use what bathroom based on what their identity is or what they were at birth. That keeps coming up over and over again.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: So I do want to remind the listeners, this is global stuff. And my guests for this show, Gilda Gonzalez, who's the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California. And we also have Anna Meldrum, who is Planned Parenthood Northern California's interim regional center director for the northern region. She oversees seven health centers, and they have a total of 18, including their virtual clinic in the 20 northern counties that provide a variety of services, family planning, reproductive and healthcare services, primarily.
So are you open to anyone? What if someone's low income or can't pay? What are your standards in providing care to those in need?
[00:15:34] Speaker C: We don't turn anybody away. So we've been so lucky to be able to provide what we call uncompensated care to patients who are uninsured or who are unable to pay for their visit. We're able to cover their visits.
And so it really gives that full access to folks.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: And is that they need some proof of income, or do you pretty much just take, take them at how they assess their own personal situations?
[00:16:06] Speaker C: Everything is self report as far as income level goes.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: So maybe you can describe how you see your patients, the demographics and other characteristics of the client group that you serve in the different clinics. I'm sure there's a variety depending on the location and the nature of the population in that particular county or where the health center is located. But is there some general things you can say about the clients that you serve?
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I have a pretty general breakdown from, it's across all of our health centers. And I can read you the statistics that we have around that we have, nearly 82% of our patients have low incomes, so they're below 200% of the federal poverty level.
84% of our patients are uninsured, are utilized public health insurance.
47% are latina or Latino.
56% of our patients come from communities of color.
83% of our patients identify as female and non binary.
43% of our patients consider themselves a sexual minority.
73% of our patients are between the ages of 18 and 30. 412 percent of our patients identify as having a primary language diversity. Sorry.
And of patients who felt comfortable disclosing, 48% are either unemployed or do not have a stable income. Like maybe they have seasonal work, et cetera.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: And I would mention that this past fiscal year, as Anna was just breaking down the general, this past fiscal year that it totaled around 72,000 individuals in total.
And this fiscal year, we're probably close to probably 78,000 people across our 20 counties.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: 17 health centers in telehealth, 78,000 over twelve months or just on the. Oh, you're saying fiscal year, not calendar, fiscal year.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: That is twelve months. Our fiscal year starts on July 1 and ends on June 30. So we're within a few months of closing this current fiscal year.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Happy anniversary. I guess you're almost there.
Said, well, that's. Is that pretty much capacity for you? Do you feel like you are able to meet that amount or even have capacity beyond that?
[00:18:45] Speaker B: So we do have capacity beyond that. And I think that here in, even in your rica, we welcome patients to come. We do have open opportunities and open appointments. And so we intentionally did make new investments to build up our staff. And some of that was in anticipation of the overturning of Roe. So we do have capacity. And I don't know if Anna wants to speak a little bit more to Eureka and some of the local offerings and opportunities that we have here.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. You said you wanted to expand on that, or.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Go. Go for it.
[00:19:34] Speaker C: Yeah. So in Eureka, I mean, we have. We have, we have several different programs that are housed in Eureka. So we have our education program, and then we also have our. Oh, my gosh. I always forget what Marisa's title is, Gilda. What her department is. I don't know why.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Government relations.
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Thank you so much. And then we have, of course, we have, like, the heart of what I'm going to call the heart of our health center, which is being patients.
Our health center is huge. And we have expanded over the past. Oh, gosh, we've been expanding for the past year or so to, you know, give more access. So we've actually been able to expand abortion access, expand family planning access. So that includes all the services that I talked about earlier.
And we've also been able to expand our.
Not many people are familiar with a procedure called leap procedures, but it's a procedure that people have when they have had abnormal pap smears and need to go through some procedures. So we've been able to expand to offer those, whereas previously, people in Humboldt county needed to travel to the Bay Area for that. So we. I'm so happy to be able to offer as much as we do offer in the Eureka health Center, especially since we're so, you know, set apart from a lot of the other health centers.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: And I was just. I understand that our news director had a question for them. You have it in the chat while.
[00:21:25] Speaker D: No, I was not quite. It had to do with the.
She had asked the state senators about the Humboldt County Sheriff's department, saying that they were using license plate readers and sharing that information outside of abortion clinics and sharing that information with other states. Do you know anything about that or have any information about that?
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Maybe we can wait till we're talking more about the abortion issues, but we'll put that on the side because I do want to get into the various issues related to that.
Just while you were talking about the Eureka clinic and its services, what is the. Since that's probably where most of our listeners would consider their local clinic.
That and maybe Ukiah. We reach as well with our local broadcasts, although we reach around the world through the web and other sources. Where is the Eureka clinic?
[00:22:25] Speaker C: So we are located. We're on Timberfall Court, but it's a little hard to find. We're a little tucked away. We are near hospice and we're also kind of right behind the Safeway in Eureka.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Okay, well, a lot of people would probably know where that is. Over. It's kind of in the health. Health care area there. Over by.
Is it Henderson? That's where the Safeway is. That one.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: It's Harris. Yeah, but it's right by Henderson.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
What about in Ukiah? Where's the center there?
[00:23:07] Speaker C: The center there is right by the hospital.
And it's a tiny little clinic that's kind of tucked away amongst a bunch of other. A bunch of other health clinics there. And it's on hospital Drive.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I've been there as. That's. That's my health care major healthcare source through Adventists there. So very familiar with that on. On hospital drive in Ukiah. A lot of services there.
So in thinking further about this, it seems like Planned Parenthood was the boogeyman early in the whole process.
I don't know how many years ago did they start talking in the anti abortion groups to start talking about defunding Planned Parenthood? And I know that's been a challenge.
When I was working with the mainstream media project we used to have, Cecile Richards is one of our spokespeople that we put on the air on national talk shows and other outlets. And I know that that has been a challenge. And now, of course, we can expand that to the post DOBBS decision that overturned the Roe v. Wade decision. And so you've had this challenge for a long time, as far as you know, almost unnecessarily having to defend yourself and also provide your services in the face of a lot of blowback. And so how are you approaching that now? Has your approach changed, or what is your basic strategy when you are confronted with this kind of pushback against Planned Parenthood?
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Well, thank you for that. That's so true. And we, as planned period started in 1916, and I say quite often, and it's something that is shared by other planned pirated leaders across the country, is that in that timeframe, we have never had an easy year, decade or century. We have been under attack from the day that we started.
But the one thing is very clear is that we prevail and we persist, and nothing has changed in terms of our focus and our clarity and purpose, that it is, at its core, about freedom. And one of the phrases that was uttered in 1917 really has grounded us. And it's basically that no woman can call herself free until she has the right to control her body and to choose whether or not she's going to be a mother. That still remains. Now, obviously, it's nuanced a little bit further for more inclusiveness, but that is really the essence of why we exist as Planned Parenthood is, at its core, about freedom and body autonomy.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: And are there any particular approaches you're taking or, I guess, messages that the organization Planned Parenthood of Northern California, tries to put out there, communications that you put out there to just reinforce what you were just saying about your mission and the way you approach your services?
[00:26:51] Speaker B: Yes. So it's also important to know that we are one of seven California planned Parenthood affiliates. So each of the seven of us have a territory that covers all of California. And the seven California affiliates work constantly together to ensure that California stands as a reproductive freedom safe haven. And we have been doing work for decades to ensure that we have reproductive freedom champions in the state legislature and statewide offices, because it really takes having allies at every level of government that can influence decisions. And so that is part of our work, because we have seen what happens when wrong people get into office and the power they have to make judicial appointments. And here we are with Roe being overturned. And then what ensued were these cruel and restrictive bans and restrictions on abortion in nearly half the states throughout this country. But yet California remains as a shiny beacon of hope for the rest of the country. And we really have led the way. And that again, comes down to our planned period leadership, but also other allies throughout the state of California. We're very, very clear about the role that we're playing in this moment with, again, the restrictive and cruel laws that are taking place across the country.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: And as the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood in northern California, I know, having been in administration myself and involved in fundraising and working with the legal entities, I'm assuming a lot of your job, maybe more than you'd like, is dealing with the politics of all of this.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yes. We have a lot of those conversations, lots of conversations with lawyers.
It is constant. We have to continue to push forward. The stakes are high now, and we have to make sure that we are strong, not just for now, but for future generations to come. But the other very important thing that we want to always encourage everybody is that this is the moment to lean into being pro democracy and pro voting, because all of the bans and the restrictions are a direct result of election outcomes. And so we are a c three nonprofit, and so we don't get into partisan politics and we don't name certain candidates, but what we do talk about is reproductive freedom champions. And so we encourage everybody who believes in our mission and in body autonomy to register to vote and then to vote and to make sure that you're voting for reproductive freedom championship. What we are seeing now is a trend of people trying to erase their history around abortion because they know, again, to your point earlier, that it's a hot issue and it's front and center. And so people that weren't as supportive previously are now trying to downplay their record. Well, it's all incumbent upon all of us to do the research and to make sure that we're holding everybody accountable for their past so that they can't perpetrate misinformation about their future decisions.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: And Anna, did you have anything to add to that in your position as the interim regional center director for seven clinics? You have come up against the same political issues and have to do your own approach to that.
[00:31:11] Speaker C: You know, I'm just going to say that Gilda says it so beautifully, and I can't, I can't say that.
Yeah. No, I think Gilda said it all.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: KMUD is a community radio station in the Redwood region of northern California. Donate to support people powered
[email protected] this is global stuff.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: My name is Jimmy Durschlag. My two guests for the show today are Gilda Gonzalez, who's the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California, the first Latina to serve as CEO of a California Planned Parenthood affiliate of the seven of them she mentioned. And we also have Anna Meldrum, who is the interim regional center director for the northern region that serves our immediate area and has seven health centers there.
And so they are the ones that provide this kind of comprehensive reproductive healthcare services to ARi. And we're so pleased they could make the time to be on. I think the best way to find more information on the web is just to look up Planned Parenthood Northern California. If I give you the full Northern California address with all the hyphens, it's probably more than you'll remember. So just if you can go to plannedparenthood.org and look up Northern California, or just if you Google Planned Parenthood Northern California, it'll take you right to their site, which is very direct about providing services and how you can get services, is what I noticed more than a political statement. It's really a service website.
At least that's the impression I got by it from it.
Are you seeing, you're saying California as a leader in providing, letting people make the choices that are available to them for controlling their own bodies.
I did notice on one website that talked about where the state of abortion laws are that California still has it set a viability 24 weeks to viability. So I guess there's some limit. There is viability issues. Is that something you can discuss at all or what that means?
[00:33:50] Speaker B: Well, the state of California, we passed the proposition one a few years ago that clarified the access to abortion and embedded it in our state constitution as well as birth control. And so when we talk about those circumstances of abortion later in pregnancy, it is really up to the provider and the patients terms of its utilization. And so again, we thank the California voters to believe and empower providers and patients to make their own decisions around abortion and its appropriateness throughout the stages of pregnancy.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: I do want to say this is a call in show, and if you do have questions or brief comments, you're welcome to call in 707-923-3911 please be considerate in talking to Gilda Gonzales and Anna Meldrum from this Northern California Planned Parenthood, who we've so graciously given us their time today. We did have, you know, we'll get into that a little more. There was the one question from our news director, but, you know, maybe I don't want to get into the.
Too much into the actual events that have happened, but, you know, I think people are curious to whether you actually have had to deal with attacks on your centers yourself and what kind of things you've seen and what kind of responses have you had to make to that in our area? Has that.
Have there been a number of attacks on our local clinics?
[00:35:50] Speaker B: So out of the 17 health centers that we oversee, there have been three that are particularly. Have aggressive protesters, and those are all three within the Bay Area region. So up here in Eureka, and just as a. Just to clarify, Planned Parenthood in northern California started providing services to Humboldt, Del north and Trinity counties starting in 2014. There was a previous affiliate, as you mentioned earlier, but they dissolved, and we moved into this area to ensure that Planned Parenthood services continued for this community. And so I'll have Anna speak to any threats or issues that we face, but by and large, it has been fairly manageable.
But we are always, we're always on alert, and we have different measures, and we don't talk about them publicly, but we are always very mindful about the risks and being on the lookout. And frankly, we have increased our safety measures as needed at specific sites.
Anna, anything to add locally?
[00:37:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, really just going along with what you're saying, Gilda, that in Eureka, we have not felt in danger at any point in time from protesters.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Are there people who tend to, you know, just out of curiosity, are there people who tend to stand outside the clinics with signs and things like that? Is that pretty common to a variety of the. A number of the centers that are in northern California?
[00:37:44] Speaker B: Yes. And in some cases, we would probably appreciate that they would just stand there with posters. But some of them have protesters who just go and harass our patients, our staff, some of them use bullhorns. And it is a very untenable and very aggressive and disrespectful type of situation. And people are called very bad things as they're just trying to get into our doors to get health care and our staff trying to serve patients. So again, we believe in people's First Amendment rights for free speech, but in some cases, these protesters go over that line and really become very aggressive.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: And is that pretty typical in the region that you're directing as well, Anna, that there are protesters outside the various clinics?
[00:38:49] Speaker C: There's some, I mean, I feel like specifically in Eureka, we are on private property, so protesters are not allowed to come down to our clinic. They have to be down the street off the private property.
But, yeah, at the northern region centers, we don't have a lot of loud, angry protesters there. They're mostly people standing there with the signs, like Yilda said.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And we've intentionally have focused on most of our health centers having some type of buffer, like Anna said, a setback on private property for this very reason. I think the closest health center in terms of the most northern sites was Santa Rosa. And again, it has a setback front door, but on the very public sidewalk, there was a proud boy, proud boys demonstration, I want to say probably a year, year and a half ago.
So, you know, and other protesters are, were out there and have been out there, but other than that, it's more in the inner bay that we have seen the elevated hostility amongst protesting.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Do you have to personally deal with, you know, some kind of. There's so much trolling going on these days on the Internet, and people seem like that to feel like they can say the most outrageous statements that you had to deal with that as well. Either ignore that or just have that in your, come into your lives at times.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: I have had to deal with it more times than I care to. Online and in person.
[00:40:36] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:40:38] Speaker B: And I think it comes with the territory because I am a very public person for planned parented northern California, and we tend not to have other staff front and center just for this very issue.
So I took on this role understanding the implication of it, and still I would not change a thing.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Is that the same thing for you, Anna? Pretty much just part of the territory.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: I mean, I definitely don't have, like, a public appearance like Gilda does.
I mean, I would say that the closest that I come to that is being the point person. If there's someone, you know, at one of the centers that I need to have a conversation with, you know, but that's. That's about it. It's nothing. Nothing close to Gilda's level.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: So I do want to remind listeners, this is a call in show, and we welcome your questions. Take advantage of these excellent spokespeople that we have from Planned Parenthood northern California. For any questions or brief comments. 707-9239 is the number here.
Now, this is in line with people kind of hanging around outside of the centers and, you know, writing names down. That was our news director's question. And it might have been something that's come up in her reporting that something about the sheriff's actually recording license plates of people at abortion using license plate technology, recognition technology and recording the license plates and sharing that. I don't know who they're sharing it.
[00:42:30] Speaker D: With, but apparently with other states that have travel restrictions.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Okay, so that they're restricted. And that's a topic we should discuss as well. But is that something you're aware of at all as happening?
[00:42:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So we did hear about the reports, and it was a county not within our territory. And that is the power of the seven planned period affiliates working together, because as soon as we hear about any type of activity that we're quick to flag that to Sacramento, to the attorney general's office, to our legislative leaders, because we are very adamant that we are going to protect our patients and our staff. And so I'll also add with the protistine that I've mentioned, that we also do everything in our efforts and our ability to make sure that there's a safe passage in and out of our health centers and in the same way to eliminate any type of surveillance or any other monitoring of our patients and our staff. And the moment we hear about it, we are elevating it so that we can have it either mitigated or stopped immediately. Sometimes it takes different types of efforts, legislative and changing laws, to cure that. But at every step, the main focus for us is to ensure people's privacy.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: So would you say the same, Anna, any comments on that? Have you heard about that in our area at all?
[00:44:17] Speaker C: I haven't heard about that in our area. That's not anything I'm familiar with.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Again, it's. This is global stuff. My name is Jimmy Derschlach and our guests for this show. We have about 15 minutes left on the show. Gilda Gonzalez, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California, Anna Meldrum, who is the interim regional center director for the northern region, the seven clinics in the northern region of the total 17 physical and virtual clinic, and also has been the Eureka Health center director for several years. I guess that we do have a caller.
[00:44:55] Speaker D: No, I have the text that Lauren got just as you were addressing that question. Just in it, she says that the ACLU has announced that over 70 California law enforcement agencies share the automated license plate reader data with those neighboring states.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: And is that something that you would bring to the attention of the legislation when you hear about that kind of thing. I mean, one thing I was going to ask you about, before you answer that, there is the Face act from 1994, the freedom of access to clinic entrances. And I see that there hasn't been a huge amount of prosecution or cases under that, but it does extend to threats, serious threats on social media. And is that something that you've also used in, had to use in your work at all, the Face act to protect the clinic entrances and against attacks on the clinics.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: So we have leaned into local buffer zone ordinances, and we have just recently enhanced buffer zone in Walnut Creek, clear near our health center there. And we were able to enhance it by eliminating the use of amplification, as I had mentioned earlier. And I also want to mention that the ACLU has been a very, very strong partner with our statewide Planned Parenthood efforts. And we have also a very expansive stakeholder group that was created back in 2021, the future of Abortion Council, in which we've launched multiple legislative measures to enhance privacy for patients, especially those coming from out of state.
And this issue around the license plate is clearly a part of these efforts that we have to ensure and to mitigate and to stop, basically, because again, we can't stand as a safe haven state when again, patients information is being shared. And again, a lot of these people are coming from states where, let's just say Texas, where part of the provision is if somebody is a friend or a family member and helps and assists somebody getting abortion, then they stand at threat for prosecution. So it is really, again, very, very high priority for all of us throughout the state of California to ensure privacy for our patients within our state and those fleeing others.
[00:48:00] Speaker A: And you are seeing an influx of patients from outside the state into the clinics. You mentioned Texas. That's quite a ways to come for abortion services or family planning services in California. So you are seeing an uptick in that now?
[00:48:16] Speaker B: We are. We are absolutely seeing an uptick in out of state patients. But one of the things that we don't have a precise percentage that we can share, because in some cases, people who are coming from out of state may give us a California address if they're staying with a family member for their own protection, and that is absolutely fine that they do that. So I know a lot of people are very hungry to know exactly what that percentage looks like. But again, it is not precise at this point. But I will share with you, and I tell this story often, that one of our long time San Francisco clinicians was the first to notice luggage outside our exam rooms. And that was very indicative of people, people coming to us from far and wide to get abortion care right off.
[00:49:10] Speaker A: The bus or the airplane to the clinic, I guess, again, not a lot of time left on the program. So if you do have a question or a comment, now is the time to take advantage of that. 707-923-3911 this is global stuff. And my guests are from Planned Parenthood of Northern California, California, doing great work in our region and providing services, which is their focus.
[00:49:37] Speaker D: Actually, I have a question which you just brought up something about the, you know, some women are lucky enough to have the financial means to travel to California from other places. Is there a way that people, are there funds available to help other people with travel?
[00:49:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. So we have patient navigators hired and they are able to assist a patient, whether, again, they're from California or outside of California. And we will work with them to guide them to abortion funds. So there are multiple abortion funds that are based here in California and in other states that are the means by which people can get funding to travel and to get to us.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Okay. We do have a caller. Hi. Welcome to the show.
[00:50:30] Speaker E: Good evening. Are you hearing me?
[00:50:32] Speaker A: Yeah, we can hear you.
[00:50:34] Speaker E: Very good. Thank you so much for a very informative show.
It's interesting that if this were reverse role gender, if it were men's health, would there be so many people working against you? And I want to thank you, ladies and all of the members of your staff for promoting better healthcare and a healthier society.
And then I'm going to get off because I thought I'd ask you to remind people that Planned Parenthood isn't just a one gender thing, that you offer relevant health care for the health of men, such as prostate screening, vasectomies, etcetera. Thank you again for your thoughtful health work in our communities, and I champion you in the future.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: Well, thank you for those comments. Yeah, you did mention the services before. I don't think we talked about prostate screening, though. That's something that you offer as well.
[00:51:31] Speaker C: We offer like, well, health exams for men, which could include prostate screening. Yeah, correct.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: And important, as we mentioned at the top, and maybe a lot of the listeners tuned in later and didn't hear that. We're not, you know, we've landed in that abortion discussion because it's such a prominent part of the national dialogue right now. But there are so many services that you offer, and I think, as Gilda Gonzalez has put it several times on this show so well and succinctly that your goal is to serve people with all of their reproductive healthcare needs. And even more than that. So it's meeting the needs of people. And I think that's when I hear the vilification of doctors. Doctors now worried about losing their licenses or even in certain cases, they've been executed. I mean, you hate to say that, but that has actually happened. And their goal is to serve and help people. And now we have this case. Was it today, just today before the Supreme Court, where the life, they're questioning whether the life of the fetus is more important than the life of the mother in making that choice. I mean, these kind of equations, and they're not really equations, are just mind boggling.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: That's the Emtala case that, that was heard by the Supreme Court a few days ago. And so we're awaiting their decision about this. But you're absolutely correct. It is beyond egregious in terms of the rhetoric and the lack of, frankly, science and evidence based medicine. So you have judges and politicians and people who have absolutely no healthcare background making very serious decisions. And so, again, we lean into that. Patients and their provider are the most equipped to make critical and life saving.
[00:53:46] Speaker A: Decisions in the little bit of time that we have left. You've been very clear already gild about talking about how important the election is. And just like you, Knud can't advocate for any particular legislation or candidates, but we can tell people to be informed and pay attention to what they're voting for and what that means. But, you know, are there plans to do something on a national level? Because in many ways, Roe was seen as kind of not exactly a cop out, but a way to avoid creating national legislation. And the fact that it could be overturned like that was kind of its weakness. That was exploited by the anti abortion group organizations that there is no national legislation.
Roe was just, it was put into practice and considered policy, but was never a national law. So is there some impetus behind creating that? I know some states are very much for it, although, as you said, there are many states that probably would not support something like that.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: Yes.
So obviously, I'll just say personally, obviously, I truly believe that we need a national bill and rights for people to access all forms of sexual reproductive health care. And so I strongly believe that, personally and otherwise. And so to your point about, is there anything we're doing? I think that there is a full court press by all folks across the board, across the country in their own particular ways. And again, we can't get too political here, but certainly there is action taking place, and people are making sure that voters have the right information because one of the things that we're up against is disinformation. I think that the media, us, we've all suffered because of disinformation about certain particular things, and we have to fight against that and keep on like shows like this one and others that keep on putting truthsayers and, and putting the right information into the public arena.
[00:56:35] Speaker A: Well, I guess that's probably about all the time we have here right now. I do want to thank you for making the time on a Friday night. It's not always easy. At least you're in California. When I have my east coast guests, they're up a lot later. But Gilda Gonzalez, who's the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California, which covers 20 northern counties and a lot of the bigger cities in Bay Area, et cetera, 17 physical clinics and a virtual clinic, which people can use to get services as well. And we also have Anna Meldrum, who's the interim regional center director for the northern region, seven health centers, including Eureka, Reading, Chico, Ukiah, Clear Lake, Santa Rosa, and San Rafael. You can look up Northern Planned Parenthood of Northern California for more information about their services. And as they, they have made clear, they provide a wide variety of services and they're ready and open to provide those services now and have the, we've been assured they have the capacity and are able to take care of it. As the statistic that stood out for me, among others, 43% of the people using your services are low income. And so you're definitely meeting a need. Thanks so much, Gilda and Anna, for being with us. And to Michael McCaskill for engineering.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:58:00] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having us.
[00:58:02] Speaker A: Our pleasure. Take care. This has been global stuff. My name is Jimmy Durschlag. I should also let you know that we're one of the podcasts that are available through a variety of platforms that Kmud is putting out into the world these days. Let your friends know they can hear us at any time by looking up kmud for our talk shows or global stuff. If you want to hear some of the talk shows that we put online.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: This has been a Kmut podcast. To listen to other shows and more episodes of this show. Find us on all the platforms where you get your podcast and also on our website, kmud.org.
