Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Visits PPIL's Roseland Center

This Monday, we had a special visit from Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. at our Roseland Health Center located at 11250 S. Halsted in Chicago.

Congressman Jackson Jr. helped make birth control affordable to millions of women when he voted to make birth control available to women at no cost under the Affordable Health Act. He stopped by on Monday in honor of the Roe v. Wade anniversary to see first-hand the great work that we do in Roseland.

Our Roseland health center serves some of our most high risk patients across Illinois. 84% of our Roseland patients live at or below the federal poverty level. All patients who visit us at this health center receive services at a sliding scale fee based on their ability to pay.

In fiscal year 2011 our Roseland health center:

• Had 8,180 patients visits
• Conducted 605 Pap smears 
• Dispensed 8,695 birth control packages
• Distributed 24,176 condoms
• Conducted 2,867 STI tests (including HIV tests)  

Illinois has some of the highest STI rates in the country. Cook County also has the notorious distinction of being number one in the nation for gonorrhea rates, number two in Chlamydia and number three for syphilis. As a state, Illinois comes in 6th for reported cases of HIV. The teen pregnancy rate in Cook County is also well above the national average.

Though this statics are alarming, we work hard every day to to be there for women, men and teens and to make sure those statistics change.

We would like to extend a special thank you to all the staff at Roseland for all their hard work in providing high quality reproductive health care and education.

And a very big  thank you to Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. for his support and for taking time out of his busy schedule to visit us! We love support from legislators who will stand up for women's health care!

Call 1-800-230-PLAN or click here to find the Planned Parenthood health center nearest you. 

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