Closure of clinic leaves huge void.

Byline: BAYLA OSTRACH For The Register-Guard

ON JULY 16, THE administration of All Women's Health Services, acting on a vote from the board of directors, closed the Eugene clinic, effective immediately. All members of the Eugene staff were laid off in a mandatory meeting at 10 a.m., with no notice.

Interestingly enough, the staff meeting was originally scheduled to discuss staff concerns about the quality of client care. We were told that the reason for the closure was the lack of a medical director to provide physician backup for services at Eugene AWHS. We were told that the past 15 to 16 months have been spent trying to find a medical director for Eugene, and that the search had been unsuccessful.

The announcement was made while our current medical director was out of town, and several of our regular clinic doctors were not notified before the closure.

Historically, and until recently, one medical director in Portland oversaw services, protocols and charts for both clinics. In the past year, the "standard of care" was changed, and the administration decided that each clinic needed to have its own medical director.

The current acting medical director had recently given notice that she would resign at the end of July, partly because of her concerns - shared by the Eugene staff - about the fact that Eugene health workers have been overworked and underpaid, and the extent to which this could negatively affect the quality of care provided to clients.

As staff members of the Eugene clinic, many of us felt that the AWHS board of directors and administration chose to shut down the Eugene facility rather than address staff and community concerns. We also feel that if the administration and board claim to be so concerned about the quality of care provided to patients, they would have given us enough time to contact our clients and reschedule their abortion follow-up, family planning, and first-trimester abortion appointments, rather than turning away the clients who came in that day and referring clients to other local obstetrician-gynecologists and Planned Parenthood. These providers are not necessarily experienced in abortion care and had not been previously notified of the closure.

As it is, nearly 40 women would have come to Eugene AWHS for abortions this weekend, and they are now forced to seek appointments in Portland. For women who are nearing the end of the first trimester, the time and money it will take to make an appointment in Portland may mean the difference between having an abortion or being forced to bear a child they cannot care for.

Some might see this as a case of AWHS abandoning care and dumping patients on local providers, which is clearly a health risk for those clients who have had abortions in the past few weeks and now need follow-up care. In addition, all of the women who have recently received abortion services at Eugene AWHS have already paid for their follow-up appointment as part of their fee and will now have to pay again if they go to a local physician.

Furthermore, Lois Smith, the executive director of the administration of AWHS, stated in a memo to all staff and in a July 17 article in The Oregonian that the decision to close the Eugene facility was a "business decision" intended to "strengthen the Portland office."

If this is true, we are left to wonder how ethical it is for a business, in this case a nonprofit organization, to close a facility with no notice given to clients or employees, effectively abandoning care and dumping patients on local physicians, who had not been approached before the decision. In the staff meeting, we were told that Planned Parenthood and local obstetrician-gynecologists would help with the follow-up for clients who have been to the clinic in recent weeks. Yet according to The Oregonian article, Planned Parenthood didn't know of the closure until after it happened, and the public affairs director for Planned Parenthood described the closure as "unexpected."

Considering the combination of factors - including the AWHS administration's unwillingess to address concerns of doctors and staff at the Eugene clinic, and Lois Smith's statement that the closure was a "business decision" - it is difficult for those of us who were the health workers, receptionists, and volunteers to accept the closure. We are shocked, overwhelmed, and concerned about the impact on women from Northern California to Salem who are now without services, as well as the difficulty those of us who just lost our jobs will face.

This abandonment of care and loss of access to abortion services leaves a huge void in the medical community. We will be meeting with community supporters, exploring the legal options we have, and possibly holding public forums to invite community members to engage in a discussion of the future of feminist women's health care and abortion services in the Eugene area, as well as in Eastern, Central and Southern Oregon.

Bayla Ostrach has been an employee of All Women's Health Services in Eugene since 1999. This statement was written with the help and support of more than 20 former staff members and volunteers of the Eugene clinic.