COUNTYWIDE : Prenatal Care Given Medi-Cal Patients

Eight weeks into her pregnancy, Patricia Gonzales got some shocking news. Her obstetrician announced that he wouldn’t treat her any more.

“He just said: ‘I’m not taking any Medi-Cal patients,’ ” the 21-year-old woman recounted Tuesday. “ ‘I can’t help you. Good luck.’ ”

Panicked, Gonzales said she didn’t know where to turn. Then a friend mentioned that Planned Parenthood/Orange and San Bernardino Counties had started offering prenatal care to Medi-Cal patients.

Last month Gonzales was among the first 10 women to enroll. The program will serve 200 women in the next year.

“I enjoy coming here,” she said at a news conference to herald Planned Parenthood’s new program. “They’re very nice, very caring,” she said at the organization’s Santa Ana office. And without this clinic, she and her growing baby probably wouldn’t be getting any formal prenatal care, she said. “I probably would be doing it on my own.”

To improve access to prenatal care, Planned Parenthood and 11 Orange County community clinics will share $1.5 million this year from the new state tobacco tax. In addition to $227,000 in the tobacco tax funds, Planned Parenthood also received a $59,000 grant from the Irvine Health Foundation, executive director Marjie Fites Seigle said.

Besides offering regular checkups, nutritional counseling and advice on infant care, Planned Parenthood and the other community clinics have for the first time made arrangements with nearby hospitals to deliver the babies. (Planned Parenthood’s agreement is with UCI Medical Center.) Organizers are hoping that both doctors and new mothers will benefit because women enrolled in the program won’t show up unannounced in the emergency room.

For years, low-income women in Orange County have had problems finding an obstetrician. Though county officials gave prenatal care to 2,200 low-income women last year, they turned away 2,500 more, short of funds to care for them.