Family Planning
Star-Bulletin
Centers moves
back downtownIn search of patients and a new identity, Family Planning Centers of Hawaii moved its Oahu clinic back downtown yesterday. Formerly known as Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, the clinic lost one-third of its patients while based in Kaneohe the past two years, said Barry Raff, new executive director.
"A lot of people didn't want to drive over the Pali. We decided we needed to look for a new location downtown so our patients can have greater access to our services," he said.
Raff said he believes disaffiliation from the national Planned Parenthood this spring didn't cause the patient decrease. The national organization disaffiliated the Hawaii chapter because it didn't meet its national standards. But the local chapter called the decision political because it refused to merge with a mainland chapter.
Doctors from California Planned Parenthood chapters gave the thumbs up on the Hawaii chapter's medical care.
"It's been a year of change from recreating ourselves," said Mele A. Look, the new chairwoman of Family Planning Centers board.
"I know we will regain our patient load in time. There's a real need for our services," Look said. "Teen pregnancy is still at a high rate and remains an important issue. I think it will always be."
In 1998, the Oahu clinic had 5,800 patients who made 10,000 visits. In 1997, the clinic served 7,400 patients who made between 12,000 to 13,000 visits a year. In 1996, the clinic had even more patients, Raff said.
The disaffiliation has caused the Family Planning Centers to look at "what it's doing and how it does it," said Raff, a retired director of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He plans to focus on stabilizing the centers' finances.
The centers provide affordable reproductive services including birth control, pregnancy tests and counseling, obstetrical-gynecological exams, PAP smears, abortions, midlife and hormone replacement therapy, sexually transmitted disease treatment for men and women, and vasectomies.
Birth control pills, for example, cost $16 for adults, $8 for teens -- compared to pharmacy prices of $25 to $40 for a monthly prescription, Raff said.
The clinic originally left downtown when its lease expired at Ala Moana and the clinic wasn't given the option to renew, Look said.
"The change is still evolving," she said. "But we still feel we have an important role to play in advocating reproductive rights for women."
New location
Address: 1350 S. King St., Suite 310
