New clinic in Sugarcreek Twp. to serve female patients

center offers same-day prescriptions of a variety of birth control options including pills, patches and rings.

Dr. Timothy Kress, medical director for Abby’s Place, said the clinic will be the first of what he hopes will be many contraceptive clinics in the area.

“Hopefully, we’re gonna have a positive impact on helping women take control of their reproductive lives, reducing the rate of unintended pregnancies and helping people out,” Kress said.

According to national data from Girls Inc., a program within the YWCA, 75 percent of teen births are results of unplanned pregnancies. Data also shows Latina and black teen women were more than twice as likely as white teen women to become pregnant (84 per 1,000, 100 per 1,000, and 38 per 1,000, respectively).

Audrey Starr, communications manager of YWCA Dayton, says Girls Inc. is geared toward helping young women live healthy lives, succeed academically and acquire life skills needed to prepare them for adulthood.

“Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood present formidable challenges for teens’ development into productive and fulfilled adults,” Starr said. “In addition to the physical implications of adolescent pregnancy, the reality is that most teen mothers raise their children as single parents, which may lead to girls not completing high school and thereby being employed in lowwage jobs.”

“Although the recent decrease in teen pregnancy rates is promising, the U.S. continues to have the highest teen pregnancy rate among industrialized countries,” she said.

Kress said one of the barriers for women receiving birth control is cost, and his clinic plans to provide more affordable ways for a birth control prescription, as well as a cheaper clinical visit.

Kress said an initial consultation at a traditional doctor’s office could be “a couple hundred dollars,” plus the expense of the birth control pills, which can reach costs up to $50 per month for the uninsured. Kress said a clinical visit to Abby’s Place will cost about $48 and, in most cases, patients can get a contraceptive pill for $9 per month.

“For $156 a year, they can be on a really good birth control pill,” he said. “And that’s without insurance.”

“We’re really trying to get people the pills they need at an affordable level so that it’s not a barrier for them to be on birth control,” he said.

Abby’s Place for Women is scheduled to open July 22 and will be open daily.