PLANNED PARENTHOOD
28 N. 7TH ST
STROUDSBURG, PA 18360-2110
570-424-8306

TAPE – 132

(Dialing, phone ringing 1x)

RECORDING: Thank you for calling the Strasburg office of Planned Parenthood. For a listing of our walk-in supply hours, please press 1. For a walk-in pregnancy test and emergency contraception hours, please press 2. If you would like directions to our center, please press 3. For a listing of other locations and phone numbers, please press 4. If you would like to speak to a staff person during our center hours, please press 5 (dial button pressed).

(Phone ringing 2x)

CLINIC: Hello, Planned Parenthood.

CALLER: Hi. I was wondering — do you guys do abortions there?

CLINIC: No, we don’t, but we can provide information about where to go.

CALLER: Okay.

CLINIC: All right. You’re interested in that?

CALLER: Yeah.

CLINIC: Okay. Can you hold on a second?

CALLER: Yeah.

(Pause)

CLINIC: Hi. Can I help you?

CALLER: Hi. Who are you?

CLINIC: I’m a counselor.

CALLER: I was just wanting to know about abortions and everything.

CLINIC: Okay. What about it?

CALLER: Do you have to be a specific age for that?

CLINIC: In Pennsylvania there is a parental consent under the age of 18.

CALLER: Well, I’ll be 14 in March. But is there any way you don’t have to tell my parents? Because I can’t tell them at all.

CLINIC: Okay. Well —

CALLER: The problem is my boyfriend’s 22. And we’re going to get married, but my parents hate him because they think he’s too old for me.

CLINIC: Well, the thing is, I would still talk to your parents. We do encourage parental involvement, okay?

CALLER: But there’s not any way they can find out. I would get in big trouble.

CLINIC: Well, the only other thing you can do is through the court. If you get a court release on that, then you can go without parental notification.

CALLER: I don’t understand. What do you mean?

CLINIC: Well, you would have to go through the court system. I’m trying to think how you would go about that. Probably —

(Talking to someone else) Do you know how they go through that, through that court system?

You can probably call — I think it’s probably through legal aid or something. Probably through them you can find out. Either that or there’s —

CALLER: So I have to get a lawyer?

CLINIC: You could go to New Jersey or you could go to another state that doesn’t require — but Pennsylvania does require parental consent.

CALLER: Is it all right if my boyfriend takes me?

CLINIC: No. It has to be a parent. It has to be one parent that has to give their consent.

CALLER: If I went to a different state would my boyfriend be able to take me?

CLINIC: Well, I guess he’d be able to take you. It would be a problem if you went someplace else.

First of all, did you have a pregnancy test taken yet?

CALLER: I took a home pregnancy test over the weekend.

CLINIC: Okay. Well, they won’t accept that, okay? So you have to have a doctor’s pregnancy test first.

CALLER: Okay.

CLINIC: So what you can do is you can come in here. We can do a pregnancy test; then we can give you all the information.

CALLER: Do you guys have to tell anybody about that?

CLINIC: No, we don’t tell anybody. Everything’s confidential here.

CALLER: Would you guys have to tell anybody about my boyfriend or anything?

CLINIC: No, no, no, no. We don’t do anything. We don’t get involved in people’s business, okay? What we would do is do your pregnancy test, like I said. And we go over all the options with you. And whatever option you choose, we’d refer you for that option. And if you decided to terminate, then sure we could give you all the information.

CALLER: If it ended up that I wasn’t pregnant, do you guys do birth control there?

CLINIC: Sure. We do birth control. But we would set you up for an appointment. Because there’s a chance that you still could be pregnant, like you had unprotected in the last couple weeks, because our tests wouldn’t show two weeks and back. It goes from two weeks and back. So if you had unprotected intercourse in the last two weeks, then what you have to do is come back in two weeks. Again, if the test today was negative, you’d come back in two weeks and then we’d do another test. But we could set you up — if you came in for a pregnancy test that was negative, we can set you up for an exam appointment also. So if the test is negative again, then we can have you examined and all for birth control.

CALLER: Well, you guys wouldn’t have to tell anybody about that either?

CLINIC: No, we don’t. Everything’s confidential.

CALLER: The main reason I’m scared is like the last period I had was the first week in December.

CLINIC: And there’s a chance — did you not use condoms at any time?

CALLER: Well, no.

CLINIC: Okay. So there is a chance. So I think what you should do is just come on in, and let’s do the pregnancy test. And let’s start out there and see how things are, okay? Now if you wanted to come in for one today, we do them from —

CALLER: I’d have to call my boyfriend to see. Is it all right if I call you back?

CLINIC: Well, it’s not by appointment; you just walk in. I’ll just give you the times, okay? It’s today from 1 to 4:30 and tomorrow from 9 to 1. Okay?

CALLER: Is it all right if I call you back if I had any more questions?

CLINIC: Oh, sure. No problem, hon.

CALLER: What was your name?

CLINIC: My name is Carol.

CALLER: Carol? All right. Okay. Thanks.

CLINIC: Okay. Bye bye.

CALLER: Bye.

***END***