Letter from Michelle Loftus
Posted February 18, 2017 at 9:25 am by Tim Dustrude
In the SJ Update mailbag we find this letter from Michelle…
SJPHD takes money from Charitable Fund to give to Planned Parenthood.
San Juan Public Hospital District Commissioners have decided to amend the contract with Peace Health to remove money from the charitable fund used to help people in our community who can’t afford their hospital bills. Our community levy money is the source of the fund. The $50,000 removed will be sent to Planned Parenthood. They report it will be used for cervical cancer screening but this service is already available from doctors at Peace Island Medical Center.
If the commissioners want to use our levy money for causes other than PIMC’s charitable fund the list is long for other medical concerns in our community. Hospice, home health care, mental health treatment, health transportation assistance, the Community Paramedical committee, Senior Fall Prevention programs, nutritional support programs and telemedicine are only a partial list of needs in our community that could be helped before Planned Parenthood, a national organization boasting in 2015 of assets over 350 million and eleven officers with over 6 figure incomes.
Whether you are prolife or prochoice you should consider this a fiduciary mistake to send these funds to PP. Please contact your SJPHD commissioners today at sjcphd.org and ask that they consider the real health needs of our community.
Sincerely,
Michelle Loftus
San Juan Island
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Categories: Health & Wellness, Letters, People
3 comments:
3 comments...
I totally support Hospital District funds (from the taxes we pay) going to support Planned Parenthood. The whole point of moving some of our tax money from the coffers of Peace Island was to be able to provide some health services to our community that Peace Island (being Catholic) doesn’t provide. Planned Parenthood provides an array of much-needed services, primarily to women. Current support for their Friday Harbor office is minimal, and giving them more $$ to work with would certainly enable them to increase their hours here and therefore the number of people they can help!
I, too, support the resolution for the reasons given by Lori Stokes above. Peace Health currently imposes its Catholic values on island residents who don’t necessarily share those same values, and who are therefore not afforded the essential and often life-saving services they need. I urge the commissioners to vote yes on this resolution.
Planned parenthood is AMAZING & should receive ALL the help it can… It’s sad to see anyone think it’s not a ‘noble’ organization to give to. They help men & women for MANY different issues, life threatening, early detection, education, prevention and so on… MORE people should be giving to them, not less… Sad to hear you don’t think it’s worthy of receiving funds… Too bad they aren’t here EVERY SINGLE DAY for our community but they can’t due to lack of funding… Also a BIG THANK YOU for posting the commissioners e-mail address, so I can thank finally them!!!
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