Milwaukee scales back family planning services despite spike in STDs
Assistance ended at one clinic, reduced at another in January
Despite a troubling spike in sexually transmitted diseases in Milwaukee, city officials have dramatically scaled back family planning services.
Family planning — which aims to help people avoid unintended pregnancies with contraceptives and other services — had been provided at two city clinics, the Southside Health Center and Keenan Health Center.
But those services were disrupted in January, Milwaukee Health Department staffer Angela Hagy told members of the Common Council this week.
“Family planning services stopped altogether at the Southside Health Center, and we’ve had reduced family planning services at Keenan,” Hagy testified during a Tuesday committee meeting. “So at Keenan, we do provide STI (sexually transmitted infection) testing, but we do not provide comprehensive contraception.”
The sudden drop-off in services was linked to a contract with provider HealthFirst, which ended in January, Hagy said. She added, “We’re looking to restart those services.”
Hagy, the city’s director of disease control and environmental health, later added that condoms are still available at the Keenan center. That clinic also makes referrals to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, she said.
When it comes to STIs, Milwaukee leads the nation in several categories. The Milwaukee area ranked first in the nation in gonorrhea rates, fourth in chlamydia and is ranked as one of the worst places for HIV for men of color under the age of 25.
Earlier this year, the Journal Sentinel reported that officials had discovered a network of people with HIV, syphilis or both in a large sexually transmitted infection “cluster.”
Several members of the city’s Finance and Personnel Committee expressed shock and disappointment over the news.
“I mean we have an explosion of STDs, do we not, in this city?” Ald. Michael Murphy asked during the meeting. “And we’re not providing family planning services for seven months on the south side of Milwaukee, which has one of the highest rates of
poverty?”
It’s unclear how many people have been affected by the city’s reduction in family planning. “There was some disagreement among managers who were overseeing the program, so the systems weren’t set up to track that information,” Hagy said.
Ald. Russell W. Stamper II called for the Health Department to report back to council members.
“We’re going to have to monitor this,” Stamper said. “We can’t continue to be ranked so high in STIs and we have no way of seeing if we’re doing anything about it. What are we doing?”
Tuesday’s debate about family planning and sexually transmitted diseases came shortly before another heated meeting at City Hall where a city official told aldermen Milwaukee had “consistently failed to use its enforcement powers” to protect children by removing lead paint risks in homes.
Ald. Chantia Lewis said she was especially disappointed that two positions related to STDs created in the budget due to a measure she sponsored had not yet been filled.
Lewis called on Health Department staffers to urgently address the city’s problems with sexually transmitted infections, even as it deals with its ongoing lead crisis.
“We still need to operate as if the house is on fire,” Lewis said. “We still need to put that fire out while we’re working on other things.”
Interim Health Commissioner Patricia McManus told committee members that she needs her staff to update her, adding that she didn’t know the Southside Health Center was supposed to be providing family planning services.
“I’m going to be real clear, I had no idea that that’s what was supposed to have been happening,” McManus said.
Mayor Tom Barrett voiced frustration with the situation, saying he had learned of it from reading about it in the Journal Sentinel.
“So that’s disappointing, obviously,” Barrett said. He added, “What I intend to do is to do everything we can to make sure that we get the train back on the track at the Health Department. That’s what my No. 1 goal is right now.”