Sept. 1, 2015 By Jackie Strawbridge
The borough’s first Planned Parenthood healthcare center opened its doors to patients on Tuesday.
The 14,000 square-foot facility is located at 21-41 45th Rd. in Court Square. With the opening of this new center, Planned Parenthood of New York City now serves all five boroughs.
“We’re thrilled to be opening the doors of this beautiful new health center in the diverse and vibrant borough of Queens,” PPNYC president and CEO Joan Malin said in a statement. “Queens residents, and all New Yorkers, will now have increased access to the high-quality, confidential sexual and reproductive health care services they need, regardless of their income or immigration status.”
Health services at the Court Square center will include breast and cervical cancer screening, gynecological care, birth control and pregnancy testing, among others. Abortion services will be added later this year.
On-site health insurance enrollment through Medicaid and the New York State of Health marketplace will also be available.
PPNYC cut the ribbon on the new facility in May, with local officials including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Borough President Melinda Katz and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer joining the celebration.
Van Bramer allocated about $750,000 for the opening of the Long Island City Planned Parenthood. Earlier this month, he recorded a video at the center to speak in support of Planned Parenthood before the U.S. Senate voted on a measure to defund the organization, which did not pass.
A PPNYC spokesperson said that the new center took longer to achieve City and State approvals than expected, pushing the opening back from its originally planned date in June.
Since the ribbon cutting, the organization has been hiring and training staff, presenting open houses and tours and hosting its Queens sex education program at the Court Square facility.
The street was quiet for the center’s opening day; PPNYC said it is unaware of any protester activity since the ribbon cutting. Like all Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide, the Court Square facility is equipped with metal detectors.
The center will be open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
PPNYC anticipates that the center will serve 17,500 clients each year.
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31 Comments
What is it with you NIMBY-s? You nab an overpriced studio apt. in a monstrously ugly high-rise luxury ghetto and all of a sudden it’s ‘we’ don’t need this, ‘we’ don’t want that in ‘our’ neighborhood…get over your racist, classist, privileged selves and move to frickin’ Bushwick where the gentrifying is fresh for the taking…. Importing poverty into the neighborhood huh? Why don’t you just erect a nice razor wire fortified fence around LIC and admit that what you really want is to be a gated community for myopic empathy-lacking assholes….and for the record, PP saved my life and I happen to be lilly-white and not poor, so much for your sweeping generalizations as to the demographics PP serves….ugh…
Oh my gosh people, relax, chill!
You must be a lazy person if you can’t go into Manhattan. And their “services” are very inferior.
@gigi you’re a self absorbed self righteous phony. Who does nothing but insult people who don’t share your naive vision.
This is wonderful news, I will definitely be using them for my gynecological services. Better than having to go into the city.
Angelo, I am not against the planned parenthood, I think it was a smart move to build it here since is is easily accessible for Queens residents as well as Manhattan and Brooklyn. Why do you think that there won’t be women and men who live the neighborhood who use planned parenthood? you don’t have to be poor to use their services. I’d go there if I couldn’t get in to my own doctor. This is NYC and all kinds of people are in neighborhoods on a daily basis. As I said before, don’t like it, leave. There’s nobody forcing you to live here
To all the people who don’t want this in their neighborhood or don’t like the services they offer go straight to hell you filthy pieces of garbage. I wish the utmost worst for all of you.
To all you wack jobs and bigots against this…move to AL, MS or to any southern state where you’ll fit right in.
Kuddos to PP for having this here!!
Don’t get it twisted, women from ALL walks of life go to PP!!
WRong! Rich women do not go to PP for “services”. Their own fancy doctors abort their babies and then they go and buy babies from poor women. That must make you happy. And feel free to live in communist China which aborts babies.
Facts prove practicing reproductive health and responsibility does not promote promiscuity. Below is list published by Economist magazine relating to “promiscuity: It looks ;like a pretty mixed bag to most. If your flat out lie was true why are the nations which practice the most reproductive health and responsibility missing from the list ie: France, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Italy just to name a few. and so called religious countries over represented ie: Israel, Bolivia, Philippines and Brazil Please stop posting lies and propaganda at least pretend to have some faith in your false ideology you phony hypocrite.
1. Finland 50.5
2. New Zealand 47.69
3. Slovenia 46.26
4. Lithuania 46.1
5. Austria 45.73
6. Latvia 43.93
7. Croatia 42.98
8. Israel 40.95
9. Bolivia 40.9
10. Argentina 40.74
11. United Kingdom 40.17
12. Estonia 39.95
13. Germany 39.68
14. Netherlands 39.34
15. Morocco 39.31
16. Philippines 39.31
17. Switzerland 39.13
18. Fiji 38.58
19. Brazil 37.93
20. Czech Rep. 37.52
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!
Count me as one person who completely supports abortion, especially if it had been practiced successfully years ago by Daniel Bryant’s mother.
Gotta make sure we harvest all the organs we can find, including the ones in queens. It’s a good thing our tax money is funding this!
We see you’re a Fox watching idiot who rally’s behind fake videos.
This will do nothing for the neighborhood. It should have been placed in Queensbridge or Ravenswood for the convenience of the clients.
Seriously? I live in the neighborhood and will probably start using their services. I am not poor, but my insurance isn’t that great.
You’re kidding right? Must EVERYTHING be placed right on our doorstep? It’s 0.7 miles, yes, LESS than a mile on foot, a 14 minute walk. Walking is good for you. Also, you can take the Q66/69/102 to Queensborough Plaza, jump on the 7 train, bam you’re there in 12 minutes!!! Queens needed this and it’s in a pretty accessible location. Enough with with the whining!
The point is that there is no need to import people from Queensbridge with their attendant problems into the neighborhood. I agree that this should have been placed closer to its customer base vs on a residential street.
Angelo, it’s impossible to have a non-emotional debate about this, so be prepared for the thumbs-down count. There’s too many hotheads on both sides of this issue. You’re either labeled a feminazi or a right-wing crazy. I’m neither. I really could give a rat’s ass about what medical services people get. I just don’t think a quiet residential street in our neighborhood is the right place for it.
Quiet residential street that has a carpentry workshop, production studio, theater, diner, subway stop and gallery. Not that quiet. Lest you forget, LIC is zoned for business and residential. I don’t see anyone complaining that NYU is going to put a medical facility in the building on the north side of 44th drive next to the new condo. How is that any different? It’s going to bring people seeking medical care into the neighborhood too. Oh wait, it’s NYU and the people probably won’t be poor so its ok. There are plenty of neighborhoods that have medical facilities in them, but the real objection seems to be that it is Planned Parenthood, who does far more than abortions. You do realize that there is a medical facility right on the southwest corner of 45 and 21 ? It has been there for years. If it really bothers you that much to have this near you, you can move to another neighborhood. I have no problem with them here. I’d rather have them than another over priced, ugly tall high-rise.
Oar, you hit the nail on the head. I see no reason to import poverty, even if transient, into the neighborhood. Planned Parenthood does a lot of good, but they should go where their customers are. The reality is that gentrification is going to push poverty further and further afield from the neighborhood, and this facility is a step in the wrong direction.
Let the baby butchering begin!!!!!!
This is a sad day for Queens. They are the largest providers of abortion in the USA and do not do mammography! They also encourage young women to lie to their parents. I know because I had friends who used to work there and quit. The founder, Margaret Sanger, was a racist and eugenicist.
@Gigi You over looked the good things accomplished by Margaret Sanger and planned parenthood. The millions of women’s lives that were saved and the millions of children who were not orphaned because of her bravery and sacrifice just in educating people about birth control. People should read up on how many women died, families destroyed and children orphaned because of the prohibition of birth control, not just the prohibition of abortion. Don’t forget the millions of throw away children in Boston, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia during Margaret Sangers time. People who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. You really need to get your naive head out of the sand.
@Gigi We should be celebrating Margaret Sanger and the millions of women’s lives that were saved and the millions of children who were not orphaned because of her bravery and sacrifice. People should read up on how many women died, families destroyed and children orphaned because of the prohibition on birth control and abortion. Don’t forget the millions of throw away children in Boston, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia during Margaret Sangers time. People who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it
Fine, let’s celebrate. But I still wish the celebrating were happening someplace else. Having PP is a step backwards to improving the neighborhood.
No offense, Joe, but you sound like a bit of a racist! Did you know that Sanger spoke at a KKK rally? And that she supported the Nazi eugenics program? And that she supported the Tuskogee experiments?
@gigi offense taken. You sound like an ignorant Fox watching blowhard who believes in fairy tales. Babe Ruth, Walt Disney and John Wayne all held racists views but their successes are celebrated. Nobody is perfect and nobody is always right and nobody is always wrong. Good people do bad things and bad people do good things. That’s life not the fairy tale you’re looking for. How many lives have you saved? No matter how bad You believe Ms. Sanger to be she still has saved and improved more lives than an ignorant blowhard like you who believes in pointing out historical fact of someone’s contributions to our country as being a racist. No offense darling but frankly you sound like an imbecile and a great example of the benefits of eugenics.
Gigi are you for real? No offense?? Your post is nothing but offensive. To call someone “racist” for providing indisputable historical facts in their post? Practicing birth control and reproductive responsibility and access to safe legal abortion has saved millions of lives and preserved the health of millions more. Not to mention kept millions of more families intact because the mother didn’t die of a botched abortion or died in child birth from a weakened body from multiple births. Yes each birth brings additional risk. Breeding like animals. Please pick up a history book. It’s not racist to point out a fact or a contribution to the public good.
To those who are mourning – you’re free to oppose the opening of this clinic, but you must also take some role in providing support to the women forced to carry these unwanted babies to full term and care for them. And refer them to an OB/GYN who’ll provide free mammograms and pap smears. And refrain from calling them takers and moochers. If you had your way, they’d have another mouth to feed.
If women actually used the birth control there would be no need for millions of lives to terminated.