Planned Parenthood leaders say financial prospects for the Durango clinic are looking up despite rural health care staffing shortages and battles over abortion medication.
Adrienne Mansanares, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said she is far more optimistic about the clinic’s long-term future than she was when it reopened in October.
Earlier concerns centered on the possibility that Planned Parenthood clinics could lose access to Medicaid funding, which she said would have severely affected rural clinics such as Durango.
“The state of Colorado really stood up for us when we expressed a request to get state funds for the Medicaid program,” Mansanares said.
Colorado replaced the lost federal funding with state Medicaid dollars, allowing Planned Parenthood clinics to continue serving Medicaid patients in Colorado and New Mexico.
“With the commitment of state Medicaid funds, that has created a sense of stability in all of our rural health centers,” she said.
Mansanares said the Durango clinic is meeting community demands with one nurse practitioner and part-time operations on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Since reopening, the clinic has served roughly 400 patients, said Fawn Bolak, regional director of communications and marketing for the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Twelve percent of those patients come from out-of-state, primarily from Texas and Arizona.
On top of a host of routine reproductive health care, the clinic provides medication abortions – a nonsurgical method that uses prescription drugs to terminate an early pregnancy, generally within the first 10 to 11 weeks.
That care relies on mifepristone, one of two drugs commonly used in medication abortions. Mansanares said active court challenges involving the drug have created instability for providers and patients.
“Not knowing for sure if our patients are going to have access to safe medication always is challenging,” she said. “… Changing various protocols so that we’re in line with a volatile legal landscape is always really tough.”
The U.S. Supreme Court had temporarily allowed continued access to mifepristone while litigation continues.
If access to mifepristone were restricted, clinics would likely rely on misoprostol-only abortions, which Mansanares said are somewhat less effective and may require additional follow-up care.
Beyond abortion and contraception services, the Durango clinic also provides transgender hormone therapy. Mansanares said Planned Parenthood has seen an increase in out-of-state transgender patients in recent months as restrictions on gender-affirming care expand in other states.
“I’m really proud that we’re able to expand that care,” she said. “It’s … very special for our communities to be able to welcome other folks who are fleeing that kind of attack on their humanity so that we can provide them care here.”
Mansanares said local support has played a major role in helping sustain the Durango clinic financially and culturally.
“We could not run the health center here without that philanthropic support,” she said.
Mansanares was in town for an open house last week that was attended by about 50 supporters. Staff gave tours of the newly renovated clinic, which has a fresh coat of paint and updated medical equipment.
She said Durango’s support for reproductive health care helps patients feel safer seeking care and makes providers more willing to work in the community.
“People (in Durango) are fiercely proud of being a supporter of reproductive and sexual health care,” Mansanares said.
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