Clientele Change for Planned Parenthood?

I’ve been utilizing Planned Parenthood’s services since I was a teenager.  They have always been the most accessible and helpful channel towards staying safe and preventing pregnancy.  The only place I have ever found to be better was a Gay & Lesbian Center in New York who didn’t care what your sexual orientation was and played “Dirty Dancing” in the waiting room; the only reason I term it ‘better” is because I love Jerry Orbach and Patrick Swayze.. This clinic had a sliding scale but Planned Parenthood was always cheaper.

Usually the only drawback to PP is exactly why they are so fantastic: the waiting room was full of teenagers and various women in their twenties, some in distress but most who just can’t afford health care.   I hated having to sit there and witness the decline of teenage civility, but always appreciated the fact that if teen girls are sexually active, they have somewhere to go. 

Regardless of how monotonous and probing the questions on the questionnaires were – and they have to be completed with EVERY visit – I appreciated how thorough their system was and wondered how many girls in the room had as much if not more experience than I had at their age?

Last Saturday was different.  Usually if I arrive between 8:00 & 8:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning, it’s already packed.  Boyfriends linger in the waiting room or bring their girl McDonald’s from next door.  The television blares but you can’t hear it above the din of conversation and cell phones. People fight with the receptionist and don’t understand why they have to wait for hours just to get some pills.

I arrived at 8:20 a.m.

Quiet.  Half the waiting room was full.  Everyone had a thick book they were quietly reading.  Diverse room but no more of one ethnicity than another.  “Saved by the Bell” was on the telly and you could follow it.

But here is the craziest part:

Everyone was my age or older.  We watched Zach and Kelly’s friends handle their break-up and got nostalgic.

I was out in one hour and fifteen minutes, a record even for a Saturday morning.

Where have all the teens gone?
Where are all the teens going? 

Do they have somewhere or are they not as worried about pregnancy and STI’s (called STD’s in my day) as they were before?

It really makes you wonder……..