Regional Planned Parenthood nonprofits responded Tuesday to comments made during a discussion with Bonner County commissioners and Panhandle Health District Medical Director Gregory Pennock about women’s reproductive health care. 

Planned Parenthood Advocates and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Greater Washington and North Idaho issued a joint statement taking issue with equating any type of services for reproductive health care for women as “Planned Parenthood” funding. 

“Not content to just drive all OB-GYNs out of their region, Bonner County apparently will keep on restricting access to care until their patients have no choice but to drive hours away or learn how to provide care to themselves,” the statement read. 

PPAA and PPAGWNI pointed out that Planned Parenthood currently has no health centers in Northern Idaho and has no relationship with Bonner County or the Panhandle Health District and expressed surprise that any type of reproductive health care was termed Planned Parenthood services.   

The Press reached out to Pennock to learn more about what the need has been from the community. 

“Panhandle Health District currently provides a predominantly women's health clinic that has been an important access point to filling gaps in women's care,” Pennock said. 

When asked whether resources will continue to support women’s reproductive health to meet those needs in the future, Pennock said that’s an unknown at this time. 

“Panhandle Health District is currently discussing how to best utilize public resources to improve overall public health,” Pennock said. “It is premature to speculate on what future model the board may decide upon.” 

After years of working as a certified nurse and midwife and previously serving as board member in a statewide coalition called Idahoans United for Women and Families, Sandpoint resident Cynthia Dalsing said she had been watching the discussion with mounting concern.

She counted only a few local practitioners among doctors and nurses who have licensure for women’s reproductive health.  

“We have lost four gynecologists who were full-time providers of women’s care, so it doesn’t surprise me that the percentages have shifted and more women are getting help from the health department,” Dalsing said.  

One worry that has also cropped up as OB-GYN options have left the area is the drive times to receive care, especially in emergency situations. 

“The best way to have really healthy babies is to take good care of women and this is not,” Dalsing said. “It’s putting women at risk of complications and if they have a complication, if they don’t die, they could have a complication, they could now be infertile.”    

As part of The Pro-Voice Project, she the group organized a get-together to brainstorm ways to better support keeping women healthy without the resources they used to have in Sandpoint. 

“If you have cervical cancer, you cannot get that treated in Sandpoint anymore,” Dalsing said. 

Until more reproductive health options for women emerge in North Idaho, Dalsing worried about the future of reproductive care for women. 

“Women are essential in a community, it’s not just that they give birth. They're essential in every aspect of a community, like education or the government, health care, you name it,” Dalsing said.