Listen to the Call:
Transcript:
FOUNDER’S WOMEN’S HEALTH CENTER
COLUMBUS, OH 43205
614-251-1800
TAPE – 777
(Dialing, phone ringing 1x)
CLINIC: Thank you for calling (unclear) Women’s Health Center. can I help you?
CALLER: Hi. Yeah. I was calling to see if you guys do abortions there.
CLINIC: Yes, we do.
CALLER: Okay. How much does it cost for that?
CLINIC: The fee is different depending upon how far along you are. Is this for yourself?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: Okay. What was the first day of your last normal period?
CALLER: January 3rd.
CLINIC: Okay. It looks like right now you’d be about nine-and-half weeks pregnant. It’s $350 total. Are you aware that you would have to come in for two visits?
CALLER: All right.
CLINIC: The reason you come for two is because, first of all, you have to come and sign consent forms and have your blood drawn in an ultra sound. And that’s your first visit. And then you have a 24-hour waiting period before you come back for surgery. And then you can come back anytime after the 24 hours is up and have surgery done. Is that something you want to set up an appointment for?
CALLER: Well, actually I was wondering — 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. But my boyfriend’s 22. Is he old enough to take care of it, and you wouldn’t have to tell anybody?
CLINIC: The only way that you cannot tell your parents is if you go through the courts. And there’s a lot of paperwork you have to fill out. You have to go through the court system to prove that you’re old enough to handle this and do this with out a parental consent.
CALLER: Do I need a lawyer for that?
CLINIC: No. Can you hold for just a minute, and I’ll get information for you about that?
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: Hang on just a second, okay?
CALLER: All right.
(Pause)
CLINIC: Are you still there?
CALLER: I’m here.
CLINIC: Okay. Thanks for waiting, honey. What you can do is I can set up an appointment for you to come in for your first appointment, which is your counseling. And at that time we have to give you all the information about doing the court bypass. The court bypass is where you bypass any guardian having to come with you. And we can tell you what you’ll go through, what’s going to happen and all of that information, okay?
CALLER: Well, how much does it cost for that?
CLINIC: You need to come in with $150. And that’s for your ultra sound, your blood work, your counseling. And, obviously, we’ll give you information about the court bypass.
CALLER: How much does it cost for the court though?
CLINIC: I don’t believe that it does. I don’t think it does. But what I’m going to have to do is have you come in for that first visit at least. And then what you’ll have to do is we’ll give you all of the information here. And then after you’ve been given all of that information, then we have to wait for court papers and the okay before we can do anything else. Does that make sense?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: Do you want to set up that first appointment?
CALLER: Well, I have to talk to my boyfriend to see. But we were talking about all this, and we decided we don’t want anyone to know about us. If he was paying for everything, would he have to fill out any forms or anything?
CLINIC: No. But you need to have a birth certificate with you. Can you get a hold of that?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: You need your birth certificate, some type of an i.d., like a student i.d. from school or a state i.d. Do you have like an i.d, before you get a drivers license? Do you have a state i.d.?
CALLER: No.
CLINIC: Do you have a school i.d.?
CALLER: Well, I’m homeschooled.
CLINIC: Oh goodness. Do you have anything that has a picture of you with your name on it? Like the only other thing would be like a school book. Like a school year book has a picture with your name on it.
CALLER: Well, I’m homeschooled. I don’t have a —
CLINIC: I know. Do you have anything else like that?
CALLER: Not really. Well, how do I get a state i.d.?
CLINIC: What I would recommend for you to do, you can go to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and go get a state i.d.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: You can do that. That’s very easy to do. You’ll probably need your Social Security number with you, your birth certificate, that sort of thing. Do you have a Social Security card?
CALLER: I don’t know. I don’t think so.
CLINIC: This is stuff you have to have to be able to come in for your first visit even. Write this down, honey, so that you know, okay? You have to have your Social Security card, you have to have a birth certificate, your name, all that good stuff.
CALLER: Well, my mom might know if I have a Social Security card, but I’m not sure.
CLINIC: Yeah. You’ll have to definitely ask her for it. Okay?
CALLER: All right.
CLINIC: Do you want to go ahead and make your first appointment or talk to your boyfriend first, and then let him know these are the things you have to have, and then call us back?
CALLER: Well, when do you have your times? When do you have any open times?
CLINIC: You come in anytime Monday through Friday. We have different appointments. You can schedule that anytime between Monday through Friday for your first appointment. On Mondays and Thursdays your appointment’s going to be at 9:00. If you come on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday, it’s at 8:00. There’s a first appointment Monday through Friday that we do —
CALLER: I haven’t had a pregnancy test yet. Would you guys do that there?
CLINIC: Yes. That you can do without anybody having to know about. What you have to do is take your first morning urine. So when you first get up in the morning and you have to go to the bathroom, put it in some type of a container with a tight lid. Usually like a little pill bottle will work best. And it has to be a clean container. You drop that off between 12 and 1 Monday through Friday. And then you call back an hour-and-a-half later to find out your results.
CALLER: And you’re sure that nobody would have to know about me and my boyfriend?
CLINIC: Nobody has to know about that. No. All the information that I’m telling you up until this point can be kept from anybody. So I would recommend you do your pregnancy test first; then you and your boyfriend can discuss what you’re going to do from there.
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: What you’ll probably have to do is wait for tomorrow when you get a first-morning urine, because it has to be the first time you go in the morning.
CALLER: Well, If it turned out that I wasn’t pregnant, could I get birth control from you guys?
CLINIC: Yes. We can bring you in for those appointments too. We can give you all that information.
CALLER: Okay. Well, how much does it cost for that?
CLINIC: Seventy-five dollars, an annual exam. Have you ever had that done before?
CALLER: No.
CLINIC: A pap test?
CALLER: No.
CLINIC: It’s $75. And we give you two packs of birth control pills. And then we give you a prescription for four months. We give you a pap test, and then you’ll get screened for any sexually transmitted diseases. And all of those appointments are on Wednesdays only. We can also offer you a school excuse — well, you’re not going to need that with your mother. Never mind. I was thinking going back to school if you need an excuse. But, yes, you can do that.
CALLER: My boyfriend and I don’t want to have to go through all this again.
CLINIC: Well, it’s a very smart decision for you to make. If you turn up negative, definitely you’re going to want to get on birth control. But even if you do have to go through all this, you do decide to have the abortion, we can still get you started on birth control after your surgery. And while you’re here we give you all of that information. And we also do all of the exams and check-ups for birth control here as well. So you can even start coming here after an abortion for all of your birth control needs.
CALLER: Okay. You’ve just been so nice. I wish I could talk to my mom like I’m talking to you. Could I call you if I had any other questions? What was your name?
CLINIC: My name is Jennifer. You can always call me back and ask me any questions. And I’m a mom. And hopefully someday my daughter will say that about me (chuckles). So if you do need any other help, honey, just let me know. But please come in and do your pregnancy test first. That’s the best step.
CALLER: All right.
CLINIC: We’ll see you soon. Bye bye.
CALLER: Bye.
***END***