After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, abortion rights were effectively rolled back across the country. In Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox signed H.B. 467, which would have banned abortion clinics in the state, but it was blocked by a judge in May.
Despite the changing of the national tide surrounding reproductive health, the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah is still operating — and is actually aiming to expand some of its services.
Kathryn Boyd, CEO of PPAU, decided to take the job after learning more about the community in Utah. She wanted the opportunity to use her experience — around two decades working for Planned Parenthood affiliates — to improve healthcare in the region.
Boyd felt a connection with the community in Utah but also recognized a need for improvement in many of Utah’s reproductive healthcare services — especially in some of Utah’s more rural areas, which she described as “healthcare deserts.”
“In some of the rural areas here in Utah, where people just don’t have access to basic health care, they might have to drive for an hour to get to a provider,” she said. “I’ve heard stories in rural areas, from people who have made an appointment that they had to wait three months for — they really want an IUD, they’ve done their research, only to get there and the doctor telling them, ‘Well, I’m not going to do that for you today, because I don’t think that’s right for you.’”
This isn’t just a problem in Utah, she said, but all across the country. In rural areas, healthcare related to sexual and reproductive health is especially difficult to come by. Boyd said one way Planned Parenthood is combatting this problem is by providing expanded access to Telehealth appointments, so “people can access care when they want to, wherever they are.”
“I would also like to expand access to more rural areas of Utah for some of our basic services like contraception, even STI testing or treatment, using Telehealth,” she said. “We were able to do that on a limited basis, but now we’re expanding that reach.”
Traditionally, Planned Parenthood is known for its services related to sexually transmitted infections and reproductive planning, but Boyd wants to further develop the services of the organization to provide better treatment for needs related to general health. The organization also offers services related to thyroid issues, hypertension, cancer screening and gastrointestinal health.
“I’ve been busily working on improving our technology here and making sure that we’re using every piece of tech to improve the experience and provide access for patients,” she said.
Another one of Planned Parenthood’s biggest roles is public outreach and work within the community. Boyd said as the organization strives to provide what they say is “much-needed age-appropriate and accurate medical information to people who want it,” they have run into hurdles set into place by Utah policymakers.
“We’re really handcuffed by the kind and the amount of information we can provide,” Boyd said, referring specifically to the Utah legislation that sexual education must stress abstinence inside schools.
Just like many of the issues surrounding reproductive health, this problem is exacerbated in rural areas.
Claudia Geist, an associate professor of gender studies at the University of Utah, teaches a course on reproductive justice. She said that many of her students in that course feel they aren’t being provided with enough information about sexual health in secondary school, especially “kids from more rural areas, who have high schools that don’t have necessarily the best sort of sex ed programs.”
“I just want everybody to have access to the tools to take care of their bodies,” she said.
Geist added one of the most important pieces of effective reproductive healthcare is a patient-centered approach, that takes the needs of each patient under consideration. While this idea seems intuitive, Geist noted that sometimes these issues are more complex than we might realize, because “people may have all sorts of ideas of how they want to live their lives.”
However, as Planned Parenthood strives to improve reproductive healthcare in Utah, Geist said she is also hopeful for the next generation to embrace patient-centered approaches to healthcare.
“I have hopes that the young thinkers of tomorrow, the people who are in college right now, can find the ways to really embrace diversity,” she said.
