Planned Parenthood Of Arizona Offers Abortion, Gender Transition Doulas

Planned Parenthood Of Arizona Offers Abortion, Gender Transition Doulas

by | Sep 25, 2023 | News

By Corinne Murdock |

Planned Parenthood of Arizona (PPAZ) offers doulas to those who obtain abortions or undergo gender transition procedures.

PPAZ offers doula services for free and trains doulas for free. Other trainings can cost well over $1,000. However, doulas must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as traditional vaccines including measles, mumps, and rubella; Hepatitis B; and the two-step tuberculosis skin test. 

On its application page, PPAZ noted that barriers such as criminal history “more often negatively impact BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) in the application process, and that they were “working to eliminate those barriers.” 

PPAZ offers its doula services in Tucson and Phoenix. 

Arizona state law defines doulas as nonmedical professionals providing continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to families before, during, and after childbirth or in the case of loss. Licensing for doulas is voluntary in the state. 

The abortion giant appropriated the traditional notion of a doula, someone who provides guidance and support to a mother during and sometimes in the months immediately following childbirth, to include its other services like abortions and gender transitions. 

The first abortion doula program, the Doula Project, launched in 2007 in New York City. The activists dubbed their reinvention of the doula concept, the “full-spectrum doula.”

In Arizona, abortions are legal up to 15-weeks gestation, except for minors and in cases where the woman is seeking an abortion due to her unborn child’s race, sex, or genetic abnormality. After 15 weeks, women must travel out of state to obtain an abortion. PPAZ offers a network of Planned Parenthood abortionists through Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest in California for those women seeking an abortion after 15 weeks. 

PPAZ offers abortions on a sliding scale of fees based on a patient’s monthly income and number of dependents. They also offer transportation, lodging, gas, and child care services for those obtaining abortions. PPAZ has two centers that provide abortions, in Glendale and Tucson, with the other five offering abortion referrals. 

There are five other abortion clinics in the state. In Phoenix there’s Acacia Women’s Center, Camelback Family Planning, Desert Star Family Planning, and Family Planning Associates Medical Group; and in Tucson there’s Choices Women’s Center.

The Arizona Department of Health (AZDHS) has yet to publish its 2022 abortion report. Per the last AZDHS report, there were nearly 14,000 abortions performed in 2021, hundreds more than the 13,300 performed in 2020.

PPAZ’s gender transition services include hormone replacement therapy for patients over the age of 18, both in-person and virtually. The Arizona Community Foundation Kellenberger + Tollefson Center for LGBTQ Philanthropy provides financial assistance to PPAZ patients needing financial assistance. PPAZ’s gender transition services are also sponsored by Phoenix Pride, which also funds the Arizona Community Foundation.

Last September, Phoenix Pride gave PPAZ $10,000 for those services through their Community Foundation. 

PPAZ’s recently-departed CEO and President, Brittany Fonteno, became the CEO of the National Abortion Federation last month. The abortion provider is set to announce an interim president and CEO soon.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Planned Parenthood Of Arizona Offers Abortion, Gender Transition Doulas

Planned Parenthood Arizona Forced To Expand Services Due To Abortion Laws

by | Mar 9, 2023 | News

By Corinne Murdock |

Planned Parenthood of Arizona (PPAZ) expanded its services last week to include vasectomies after months in limbo awaiting court battles over the state’s existing abortion laws. 

The medical director of PPAZ, Jill Gibson, revealed that vasectomy requests increased following the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling last June in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade.

“We just started hearing that these patients really wanted to step up at this time,” said Gibson. “They recognized that, with their ongoing protected bodily autonomy, they still had a right to participate in preventing pregnancy in ways that maybe didn’t have the same importance as before the Dobbs decision.”

Planned Parenthood’s Southern Arizona Regional Health Center in Tucson will be the first clinic to offer these expanded services. PPAZ plans to roll out these services to other locations in the near future, with the Phoenix area slated to receive them next.

Gibson told The Arizona Republic that PPAZ hadn’t offered vasectomies for at least a decade. The renewed service costs $750 without insurance; PPAZ won’t offer reversals of these procedures.

PPAZ expanded their services despite the move of Arizona’s major cities to effectively decriminalize abortion. Tucson, Phoenix, and, most recently, Flagstaff all passed resolutions opposing the SCOTUS decision and encouraging their local law enforcement to deprioritize violations of abortion law. 

Additionally, both the governor and attorney general support opposition to any restrictions on abortion. Gov. Katie Hobbs said on the campaign trail last October that she wouldn’t put any limits on abortion, even up to birth. Attorney General Kris Mayes has repeatedly promised to not uphold the law and go so far as to prevent county attorneys from enforcing abortion law, even as recently as last week.

State law currently bans abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation. The pre-statehood law banning abortion completely was nullified in the Arizona Court of Appeals in December after it declared the law unenforceable, though the court refused to repeal the law.

While PPAZ has modified its business model to offer more services, other abortion providers have resorted to crowdfunding to stay afloat. Desert Star Family Planning, an independent Phoenix abortion clinic, has requested $80,000 to remain open. 

They have raised over $9,200 so far from just over 100 donors since launching the crowdfunding effort in early January. 

Brittany Fonteno, the president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona (PPAZ), said in a January interview that despite the ruling nullifying the pre-statehood abortion ban, lawmakers were infringing on constitutional rights, which she claimed included abortion.

“They don’t want people to know what their rights are, they don’t want people to be able to make their own decisions about their bodies,” said Fonteno.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.