Family Planning Aid Approved

The South Bay Hospital District on Thursday approved a $60,000 emergency grant for the beleaguered family planning program at the South Bay Free Clinic in Hermosa Beach. But it declined to approve additional money to support services for two years, saying that insufficient information was presented to justify the need.

The clinic, which expects to lose as much as $350,000 in family planning and matching grant money as a result of state budget cuts, had asked for $226,600.

Philip Valera, hospital district executive director, said the board granted the money to cover the clinic’s cash-flow problems. Craig A. Vincent-Jones, clinic development officer, said $60,000 is a “significant help” and that the clinic will submit another request when it knows the exact amount of its financial losses. “They made it clear we are invited back,” he said.

The hospital district’s action came one day before the free clinic closed its Teen Advocate program, which had been funded with family planning money. That program trained teen-agers to make school presentations on teen-age pregnancy prevention and counsel other teen-agers on such problems as communicating with parents, drug abuse and suicide.