Jersey City to vote on expanding Planned Parenthood partnership, such as travel services

The Jersey City Council will vote on expanding their Planned Parenthood partnership, such as including travel services, at Wednesday’s meeting.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

The resolution before the council, who holds their caucus today at 4 p.m., would enter the city into a $30,000 contract with the Planned Parenthood located at at 238 Mulberry St. in Newark for one-year: July 1st, 2023 through June 30th, 2024.

“PPMNJ reached 299 women between June 2022 and March 2023 through this program and partnership, providing sexual reproductive health education, birth control options, and further reproductive health care services, proving the WEES Pilot Program to be a successful initiative,” the local legislation says.

” … PPMNJ seeks $30,000 in grant support to increase the number of patients served and reach at least 400 patients through the 2023-2024 WEES Program with Jersey City WIC, and create an informative, step-by-step WEES replication toolkit[.]”

Mayor Steven Fulop, also a Democratic candidate for governor, wrote a lengthy tweet detailing the effort on Saturday, which was the one-year anniversary of when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade and left abortion access up to each individual state.

“In 2022, we kicked off the pilot program in which the WIC of Jersey City and Planned Parenthood(PPMNJ) have formulated the first of its kind Partnership between the two agencies,” he wrote.

“As Planned Parenthood is a natural extension of the mission of the Jersey City WIC [Women, Infants, and Children] program, as it embodies the much needed reproductive support of the participants. Never have these services been more crucial to the needs of the population that they service.”

The mayor continued that during the first 10 months of the pilot program, approximately 300 WIC participants were able to receive services, about 20 percent of the eligible adult women in the WIC program.

Additionally, 21.4 percent were referred to other community partners such as Medicaid, Fulop stated.

“This also is incredibly impactful in terms of preventative health. One of the additional services that clients received was transportation. With all of the participants being on or below the poverty line, this essential service cannot be overlooked with the current cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle,” he said.

“This could potentially be the difference between these participants being able to receive medical care. This type of Partnership serves as a prime example of two organizations working together to expand their scope of services and expanding the reach of resources to their cliental.”

Ward E Councilman James Solomon, a potential mayoral candidate in 2025, was quick to come out in support of the measure in his own tweet thread.

“Expanding our service agreement with PPNJ is a prime example of elected officials’ commitment to protecting every constituent’s livelihood. It’s about taking action to support low income women in Jersey City, ensuring they have access to critical healthcare resources,” he wrote.

“I’m eager to advance this proposal at next week’s council meeting with my colleagues. Thank you to Mayor Fulop and PPNJ for their partnership and commitment to women’s health and reproductive rights.”

Just over a year ago, the Jersey City Council unanimously approved (9-0) a resolution declaring the city a “right-to-choose sanctuary city” for abortion rights.

The governing body will convene for their regular session at City Hall, 280 Grove St., at Wednesday at 6 p.m. and will also stream live on Microsoft Teams.