Oregon’s Planned Parenthood branches transition to new leadership

Both of Oregon’s Planned Parenthood branches recently welcomed new CEOs. Dr. Sara Kennedy will oversee Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, which operates clinics in Vancouver, Washington, the Portland metro area, Salem, Bend and Ontario. Amy Handler will oversee Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, which has clinics in the Eugene-Springfield area, Grants Pass and Medford.

They’re taking over at a time when other states, including Idaho, continue to restrict access to abortion and other reproductive health services. Kennedy and Handler join us to talk about how Oregon’s Planned Parenthood network is responding.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. Both of Oregon’s Planned Parenthood affiliates recently welcomed new CEOs. Dr. Sara Kennedy will oversee Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, which operates clinics in the Portland metro area, Salem, Bend, and a new one in Ontario. Amy Handler will oversee Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, which has clinics in the Eugene-Springfield area, Grants Pass, and Medford. They are both taking over at a time when other states, including Idaho, continue to restrict access to abortion and other reproductive health services. Amy Handler and Sara Kennedy both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

Sara Kennedy: Thanks for having us, Dave.

Miller: So Sara Kennedy, first – you had been chief medical officer and chief operating officer at Planned Parenthood Northern California. Why come to Oregon?

Kennedy: That’s a great question. I’m asked that regularly. And I really believe that right now, Oregon is positioned to serve patients, not just Oregonians who need care and also those in Southwest Washington, but from around the country. We’re in a state that has a very progressive and supportive legislature, largely, with a history of doing innovative, unique things in the healthcare space. So when I think about Planned Parenthood’s mission of improving public health, that’s what we do as public health care providers, I think we’ve got elected officials who are dedicated and supportive of that mission.

Miller: In a way that feels different than California, also a blue state, which I could imagine would be a beacon for women from red states?

Kennedy: Absolutely. And actually, it would surprise many of our listeners to know that the rules and regulations around sexual reproductive health care in Oregon are actually more progressive than in California. In addition, the fact that Oregon is large enough to make a huge impact for many millions of people, but small enough to be nimble and to be able to create new and innovative ways of delivering public healthcare, are really exciting to me.

Miller: I mentioned in that list of clinics around the Willamette Valley down to Bend, and all the way now east to Ontario, that’s the newest clinic that opened up about a year ago. How many patients have you seen there since that clinic opened up?

Kennedy: We’re seeing a significant number of Eastern Oregonians who are seeking care. There’s really a dearth of healthcare options available to people, especially sexual and reproductive health care. But of course, we’re also seeing now serving the state of Idaho which has severely restricted or banned abortion. Since August of 2022, we’ve seen a 1,200% increase in people from Idaho traveling across the state to get care with us. This is just basic reproductive care that people are seeking.

Miller: In addition to abortions.

Kennedy: Absolutely. One of the things that people don’t know about Planned Parenthood is the breadth of services that we offer. We offer more cancer screening than any other health care provider in the state of Oregon. And that’s because we’re statewide. We offer basic infertility services. We offer gender affirming care. We offer STI treatment/diagnosis. And then we offer just well-person exams to help keep our people healthy. So yes, people come to us for lots of reasons. The majority of our visits actually have nothing to do with abortion. It’s just on keeping people healthy and helping them access basic human care.

Miller: Amy Handler, have you seen an increase in out of state patients coming to Eugene or Medford, post-Dobbs?

Amy Handler: Yes. And actually even before Dobbs. Texas’s SB 8 that passed in the Fall of ‘21 was really a test case for what we started to see across the country with all of the bans after Dobbs. It only took 10 days after SB 8 passed for us to see our first patient from Texas in Medford. And then that has stayed true after Dobbs.

Miller: How did that work? In general, do people call you up? Or do they just show up and say “I flew in from Dallas and I’m here”?

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Handler: After SB 8, it was before we had created a navigation system across the country, that was really just an active patient who was making calls and just trying to find the next available appointment. That was a family. They showed up with three kids in the back seat, and they were like “you’re the next available, we’re here.” So it was active patients finding the care that they wanted.

Miller: There are a couple different abortion related cases that [the Supreme Court] took up this year. One of them is about the potential restriction of abortion medication, Mifepristone in particular. How might that case impact abortion access in Oregon?

Handler: We’ve been having a lot of conversations about this locally with our AG and Governor’s office to try to figure out what this would look like here. All the attorney generals on the west coast from Washington, Oregon, and California have said they will protect us in all scenarios. So we would likely continue to push forward.

Miller: What does it mean? I’m not sure that it’s likely that the court would fully agree with the arguments put forward, saying that the FDA erred … most legal experts [say they] saw some more skepticism on the part of justices. But what would it mean for state attorneys general to say “don’t worry, we’ve got you” if the justices say “no, we are going to go back to the way prescribing worked in 2021″?

Handler: I think that because of the skepticism that they saw in the oral arguments, I think that they’re looking at this as a highly unlikely scenario that we’re walking into. We’ve prepared in terms of [having] a Mifepristone stockpile in the state. I think our attorneys general would be looking at any way to fight the case.

Kennedy: And if I could just add on that, while the use of Mifepristone as a regimen for medication abortion is the most effective and evidence based way for patients to deliver medication abortion, we know that misoprostol only medication abortions are safe and effective, and are actually the most commonly used regimen throughout the world. So I want people to know that no matter what, there’s so many different scenarios of how this could all play out. Planned Parenthood in Oregon will always provide medication abortion, and it will always be legal, safe and effective here in the state of Oregon.

Handler: Always nice to have a doctor next to you.

Miller: I do want to hear more about the fact that you are an OBGYN yourself, an MD, which I didn’t know until yesterday is relatively unusual, in terms of the leaders of affiliates of Planned Parenthood nationwide. But back to the issue of medication abortion, can you just give us a sense for how central it is right now in terms of the way people are getting abortions in the US?

Kennedy: In an ideal world, when a patient presents wanting to have an abortion, they would have equal access to both medication abortion and procedural abortion. And that’s not always the case. But in an ideal world, when we do have both options readily available for patients, what we’re seeing is approximately 60%, or slightly higher, actually choose medication abortion over procedural abortion. So it’s incredibly important. It’s a very patient-centered way, it allows patients the privacy of having an abortion in their own home, and to be supported with the people that they choose to have around them.

Miller: So there’s the Mifepristone prescribing case that the court heard this year. There’s also the case about Idaho’s strict abortion ban. And that one is in some ways more procedurally complicated. If I understand correctly, the federal government said “there’s an existing federal health care law that we think should preempt Idaho’s abortion ban.”

Sara Kennedy, first of all, what are you expecting from the court for that case? And what might the repercussions be in terms of access to abortion and reproductive health more broadly?

Kennedy: It’s hard to know how the court is going to rule on this one, but we will be prepared no matter what. So at PPCW, we intentionally within 12 months of Dobbs opened up this health center in Ontario, Oregon, with the knowledge that we are going to have to be the caretakers of the state of Idaho. For our listeners to know that, no matter what, Oregon is here to take care of folks within Oregon, Southwest Washington, as well as beyond.

Handler: And the EMTALA case is different than the Mifepristone case in lots of ways.

Miller: That’s the acronym for that federal emergency care law.

Handler: Exactly. The questions that the justices asked were less skeptical than the Mifepristone case. So I think we really don’t know how they’re going to rule. But like Sara said, we are prepared. And some of the things that we need to think about are really the higher risk cases. So essentially, EMTALA relates to the emergency room, when people present with complications. We do know that since Idaho’s ban has come into play, and that since this EMTALA case has been working its way through the courts, that more and more patients are getting airlifted out of Idaho. So before this case, it was about one patient a year related to abortion. And they’ve already seen six this year get airlifted out. So like Sara said, we just need to be prepared, at least Oregon more broadly, to see patients that are in extreme circumstances.

Miller: Amy, you managed education and community partnerships before taking over as CEO. Where do you think Planned Parenthood has succeeded in those areas? And where do you see room for improvement? I’m thinking about education in particular.

Handler: So one of the things that we have in Oregon is the Healthy Youth Act, which is comprehensive sex-ed in schools for K-12. And I think it’s one of the shining lights of the Oregon Legislature really championing sexual and reproductive health. And we contribute to that by educating any school or school system that wants to work with us, by using the Oregon standards. They’re very comprehensive sexual and reproductive health standards for every single grade.

Miller: Are they actually being implemented? It’s one thing to have it on the books, it’s another to say that kids all across the state, including in communities that may be more conservative and more apprehensive about what you’re calling comprehensive education … Are kids actually learning what regulators said they should?

Handler: I think that’s actually the room for improvement and growth. It really is school district by school district, school by school. Sometimes one teacher will call us and say we’d love to work with you, but the school district is less open. So I would say it’s really in the enforcement of it. That’s not really happening across the state.

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Miller: One of the areas that is important in terms of education is sexually transmitted infections. All around the country, but Oregon has seen this pretty acutely in recent years – and we’ve talked about this a couple times – syphilis has just skyrocketed. Why is that?

Handler: We were in the midst of an STI epidemic before COVID hit. And when COVID hit, all resources really moved to addressing COVID, all of our public health departments, rightfully so, fully focused on addressing everything related to COVID. We really stepped up both of our affiliates. We started doing STI testing, we took over for some of our local health departments. Just in the first six months after COVID, we used to do maybe 2,000 to 8,000 STI tests a year in the state between the two of us, and in the six months after, we did 25,000 STI tests.

The epidemic has really grown over the last couple of years. And I think some of it is just the focus of resources on COVID and not having the focus on STIs that we had prior.

Kennedy: Regarding syphilis, one of the things that is really important to both of us is thinking about the folks who are most impacted by syphilis. And so what we’re seeing is as a community experiences rising inequities, they are also experiencing rising STI incidents. And regarding syphilis, one of the populations that is the fastest growing number of new cases are people who can become pregnant. And so what we’re seeing with a corresponding rise in syphilis is a corresponding rise in congenital syphilis, which is when the baby gets infected with syphilis, and can lead to stillbirth, to congenital outcomes, to preterm labor and delivery. And so we’re really focused on how do we help the state of Oregon and public health departments tackle this problem? Because we are seeing those patients, and we can actually do something about that.

Miller: I want to go back to your being a doctor yourself. You’re the only CEO of Planned Parenthood nationwide who is an OBGYN. I imagine that the job of being president and CEO of an affiliate involves advocacy, tons of organization, fundraising. Does being a doctor actually inform the way you’ll do your job?

Kennedy: Yes, 1,000%. I was just visiting the Eastern Portland Health Center today. And honestly, I walk into these clinics and it feels like I’m coming home, because that was my start of my career, as a physician.

I think it’s really important that as health care leaders, that we are connected to our patients, we’re connected to our communities. And that’s what that background in medicine gives me. Amy and I both have a background in public health. And so I think again, we’re positioned in a really unique way in the state of Oregon to lead the state through public health crises. And that’s definitely abortion, and that’s definitely STI prevention and treatment. Definitely taking care of our trans folks and our trans communities. There’s lots of spaces that Planned Parenthood can reach, that the typical health care provider may not be seeing as often.

Miller: You saw explosive growth in the new clinic in Ontario. Do you have plans to create new clinics now?

Kennedy: Absolutely. I look at the state of Oregon and I just see so much opportunity. We only have this one lone Eastern Oregon health center, and we know that there’s a huge number of communities and rural folks who need our care. So thinking about how best to reach them, where we could expand to. Looking at the coast, I’d say the same thing. I’m sure there’s areas in Amy’s region that we both are looking at where are the people who need us most, and where can we expand, and how best to do that?

Miller: Amy, are there any places you could actually tell us now? Or is that all under wraps?

Handler: It’s all under wraps. But we’re definitely thinking also about the coastal communities, and how we can grow our telehealth program as a first touch point for folks before they come in for their first visit.

Miller: What’s the potential timeline for announcements of new clinics?

Kennedy: Oh goodness. I’m only like eight weeks into the job, give me a moment to catch my breath!

Usually, it takes about a year or two for an organization to plan and to make sure that we’re doing this thoughtfully. So we’re a good year or two out.

Miller: Sara Kennedy and Amy Handler, thanks very much.

Kennedy: Thank you so much.

Handler: Thank you.

Miller: Sara Kennedy is an OBGYN, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette. Amy Handler is the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon.

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