Cook County explores Planned Parenthood partnership in Englewood

With Englewood’s Planned Parenthood clinic set to shut its doors late next month, Cook County officials hope to figure out how to save the South Side center, which serves thousands of patients seeking reproductive care.

“It is, we believe, a deeply needed service, especially in that area, and we are going to see what we can figure out,” Cook County Health CEO Dr. Erik Mikaitis told reporters earlier this month.

Citing a “financial shortfall,” Planned Parenthood of Illinois announced in January that it would close four clinics across the state. Besides Englewood, clinics in Ottawa, Bloomington and Decatur are on the closure list.

Illinois, already a haven for reproductive care, saw an influx of out-of-state patients seeking abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The increase in patients, “coupled with low reimbursement rates from insurers and rising costs of providing care,” helped contribute to the organization’s shortfall, Planned Parenthood said in a previous statement.

A partnership with the county could help maintain care for thousands of Englewood patients while potentially bringing new patients into Cook County Health and its Medicaid managed care insurance program, CountyCare. The need is especially acute in Englewood, where HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, infant mortality and the teen birth rate are higher than the city average.

But at this stage, officials with the county and Planned Parenthood aren’t sure what form a partnership would take: a direct grant, merger, or the county overseeing operations. A follow-up meeting with leaders from both organizations is planned after the Presidents Day holiday.

It’s also unclear whether Planned Parenthood would maintain the same location. CCH already operates its own Englewood Health Center roughly two miles north of the Planned Parenthood clinic. That center offers primary care, reproductive health services like birth control prescriptions, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and family planning education.

Planned Parenthood’s Cristina Villareal told the Tribune “we’re still in early conversations and looking at all options. I think there’s the immediate need of wanting to keep staff in place and stay open, and then I think there’s an opportunity to really partner in new ways in the future and create this model that’s different… we also know that we need to kind of move quickly.”

“We have not done anything like this before; we’re looking to see if there are other models like this,” Villareal said. “It’s different, but the times are different. This is a unique time with so many insecurities on a national level, with a higher, increased cost of health centers. And so it’s a perfect time to be innovative and creative and try something new.”

Among those insecurities: potential cancellation of the FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. President Donald Trump has already signed orders ending funding for international aid organizations that “perform or actively promote” abortion and taxpayer funding for American programs that promote elective abortions.

House Republicans also are exploring significant cuts to Medicaid, potentially booting millions off of government health insurance coverage for low-income and disabled people.

“We’re all going to have to learn to do things differently in a world where there might be less funding available for the health care safety net, so we all have to be better and smarter,” said Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, who encouraged CCH to step in.

“If you’re a government that relies on federal funding, you have to be looking two steps ahead,” Gainer said. “The county health system has access to new patients, we don’t lose the really important care happening that was incredibly trusted at Planned Parenthood,” and the county can offer additional health care to Planned Parenthood patients and their families.

The Englewood clinic dates back 20 years and sees about 4,000 patients a year. It connects pregnant patients to prenatal care, teaches sex education and recently held a community baby shower for expectant parents. The clinic provides 6,000 annual STI tests, about 1,500 birth control visits and gives out free condoms.

Planned Parenthood does not disclose abortion numbers for specific clinics, but the Englewood clinic does provide medical abortions, more commonly known as the abortion pill, officials said.

Other Planned Parenthood-operated clinics are miles away in the Loop, on the Near North Side and in Far South Side Roseland. When PPIL announced the closures, it said it planned to expand its telehealth offerings to help fill the gap, particularly to offer the abortion pill.

Cook County Health offers the abortion pill through the 10th week of pregnancy and surgical abortion procedures at Stroger Hospital through 13 weeks and six days.

Villareal estimates it would cost $1.5 million a year to keep open the Englewood location, which the organization hopes to maintain for three years “to figure out a longer solution.”

Cook County Commissioner Michael Scott, whose district includes Englewood, said he’s “very interested in making sure” the clinic stays open. “In communities of color, we know that there’s great health disparities, so anything that resembles health and service within that community is needed.”

Only 26% of people living in the neighborhood have employment-based health insurance, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health, compared to 55% citywide. Roughly 50% are covered by Medicaid. Just under 54% of Englewood mothers received early and adequate prenatal care, compared to about 70% citywide.

The Planned Parenthood clinic also provides care to sex workers, “and making sure that they have opportunities to make sure they’re being healthy in the work that they do I think is really important.” Scott said.

Though there isn’t a concrete plan for the partnership, it appears to have broad support, in part because “it really jibes with the commitment not only of Cook County Health but my colleagues on the board and the president’s office to invest in communities which have traditionally been disinvested,” said Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry, who is also vice chair of the CCH Board and chair of the county’s Health and Hospitals Committee.

“I don’t know if a deal will be submitted by March, but I do know there will be meetings and discussion much before (then). We’ll see where that leads… The urgency of this is not lost on Cook County Health.”

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