A $9 million Planned Parenthood health center will soon be built in Long Island City, the only one of its kind in Queens.
According to the Times, the organization’s four other locations—one in each borough—have seen a 26 percent increase in patient visits since 2008, meaning it’s high time Queens, the most populous borough in the city, get its own as well. Roughly 5,400 of Planned Parenthood’s 50,000 patients live in Queens.
“We talked to many of the key officials, hospitals and health workers, who uniformly said, ‘Why aren’t you here already?’ ”Joan Malin, Planned Parenthood’s chief executive, told the paper.
It’s been 45 years since Planned Parenthood last operated an outpost in Queens, a Rockaway location that shuttered due to maintenance difficulties. Still, data reveals that Queens has the highest rate of uninsured women and girls in the city, coupled with estimates that more than half of pregnancies there are unintended.
The organization has raised $8.1 million of the $9 million in funding it needs. Ground will break on Thursday, and the center, to be located on 45th Road near the Court Square subway, is expected to be completed in 2015.
