Listen to the Call:
Transcript:
HERITAGE CLINIC
72 RANSOM AVE NE
GRAND RAPIDS, MI 49503
616-458-3694
TAPE – 784
(Dialing, phone ringing 1x)
CLINIC: Heritage Clinic for Women. Can I help you?
CALLER: Hi. Yeah. I was calling to see if you guys do abortions there.
CLINIC: Yes, we do.
CALLER: Okay. Well, how much does it cost?
CLINIC: Well, it varies a lot depending on the length of pregnancy. Are you calling for yourself?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: Do you have any idea when the first day of your last period was?
CALLER: January 3rd.
CLINIC: So you’re still going to be in the first trimester there. It looks like you’d probably be in your 10th week right now. Up through the 12th week, it’s all one price. Do you have insurance or Medicaid?
CALLER: Well, no. The thing is, I’m going to be 14 later on this month, and my friend told me that you guys would have to tell my parents about all this. But my boyfriend’s 22. He said he would pay for everything. Would that be all right, and you wouldn’t have to tell anybody?
CLINIC: Well, there’s actually a law in the state of Michigan that you have to either have consent from your parents — like a parent would have to come with you — or you can go through the court system and get what’s called a judicial bypass. What you do is you would just go to the courts and fill out some papers. And then an attorney would help you out. And you’d have a hearing with the judge. And at that point the judge just needs to decide if you’re mature enough to make this decision on your own or if there’s like a reason why it would put your life at risk or be a really bad thing to tell your parents about it. They usually grant that, and they give you some papers. And then you can just come with the papers.
CALLER: Okay. Well, how much does it cost for that?
CLINIC: Usually the judicial bypass is free.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: So you probably won’t have to worry about that. The abortion itself would probably be $440. And that goes up until the 12th week. You said January 3rd. So you’ll probably have until the end of March for it to still be that same price.
CALLER: Do you know if the judge ever says no or anything?
CLINIC: I can only think of one time when the judge has ever said no, so it’s pretty rare.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: But you can definitely try that before resorting to telling your parents. What county do you live in?
CALLER: I live in Lowell. I’m not sure which county that is.
CLINIC: I’m not sure what county that is either. Let me put you on hold for one second, and I’ll find out, okay?
CALLER: All right.
CLINIC: What’s your first name?
CALLER: Lisa.
CLINIC: Okay, Lisa. My name is Anna. I’ll be back with you in one second.
(Pause)
CLINIC: Okay, Lisa. Lowell’s in Kent County. So the person you’d want to call, her name is Crystal. Her phone number is 632-5055. You need to tell her that you need a judicial bypass. Sometimes they call it something else, and I can’t think of what that is. But just tell her that you’re under 18, and you’re trying to get an abortion without your parents’ permission, and she’ll be able to help you out with that. Probably what you’ll just need to do is, if you can get a ride down there to see her, you’ll just meet with her, and then meet with a judge a couple days later. And then you’ll be all set. They’ll just give you some papers, and you can either come in here and set up an appointment or you can just give us a call, and we can help you out with that part too.
CALLER: All right. Well, my boyfriend and me were talking about all this, and he said that he was going to pay cash for everything, but we don’t want anyone to know about us. If he was paying for it all, would he have to fill out any forms or anything?
CLINIC: No. Everything here is going to be confidential. You don’t have to worry. There’s no way that anyone could get any of the information that you give us here except for you, unless you give your permission. So like your parents could never come here and say, look, I think my daughter was here, give me her records, or something like that.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: You wouldn’t have to worry about that.
CALLER: I haven’t had a pregnancy test yet. Would you guys be able to do that there?
CLINIC: Yep. You need to have a pregnancy test before you get the judicial bypass.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: You can just take a home test, buy one at the pharmacy.
CALLER: Oh, really? Are those usually right though?
CLINIC: Yeah. They’re actually very, very accurate.
CALLER: Okay. Well, if it turned out that I wasn’t pregnant, could I ge t birth control from you guys? It’s just me and my boyfriend don’t want to have to go through all this again.
CLINIC: It probably would be easiest for you and cheapest for you if you went to Planned Parenthood.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: Have you ever heard of those places?
CALLER: No.
CLINIC: Let me give you another phone number– 616-459-3101. And they’re a great place to go for birth control. You probably don’t have job?
CALLER: Right.
CLINIC: School and stuff. Especially like — that’s just the cheapest way to go, on your income. So that will probably be the best place to go for birth control because here it will be more expensive.
CALLER: But they wouldn’t have to tell anybody either?
CLINIC: Nope.
CALLER: Okay. So you’re sure if I come to your place that nobody would have to know about me or my boyfriend or any of this?
CLINIC: No. The only people that would know are us who work here.
CALLER: All right. And your name was Ann?
CLINIC: Anna.
CALLER: Okay
CLINIC: So if you have any — just call back. You can ask for me. But if I’m busy or with someone, that’s fine. Anyone who you talk to will be able to help you out with that.
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: Okay?
CALLER: All right.
CLINIC: Thanks, Lisa.
CALLER: Thanks.
***END***