A Message from Meagan Gallagher, PPNNE President/CEO
A Message from Meagan Gallagher, PPNNE President/CEO
2015 marked a major milestone for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) – our 50th Anniversary. From our pioneering beginnings in 1965, this was the year we celebrated 50 years of trusting women and providing reproductive care and education.
I’m pleased to share with you our 2015 Annual Report. I hope you’ll take a moment to join us in feeling the pride and achievement in the work we’ve done, and the thousands of lives that together we’ve helped change for the better.
Thanks to you and the generosity of tens of thousands of supporters, we exceeded the 50th Anniversary Campaign $25M goal to transform PPNNE. Our patients love the newly renovated health centers that the Campaign is making possible across ME, NH and VT. Not too long ago a Claremont, NH patient told us that she couldn’t wait for her next urinary tract infection so she could come back to the updated health center and a patient in Portland came in, looked around and said “I deserve this”. The empowerment is palpable.
Thanks to what you made possible in this campaign, we have fully implemented electronic health records; we have taken our education programs to where young people are – online; and we have scaled our policy capacity to meet the relentless assault on women’s access to contraception and abortion.
As we look to the next 50 years, I’m asking you not only to continue to stand with PPNNE but to join us as we transform northern New England. From the day we opened our doors more than fifty years ago, we have done this work so that women can participate as equal members of our society. Now we must tackle the fundamental barrier that stands in the way of women achieving full equality—the fact that nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned and low income women are five times as likely to experience an unintended pregnancy.
With recent advancements in contraceptive technology and birth control access policies, there is now a path to meaningful change. Imagine if women could pursue their educational and career goals without worrying that one missed birth control pill could undermine their efforts to elevate themselves out of poverty. Imagine if opioid addicted women could battle their addiction without the risk of unintended pregnancy. Imagine what we could do with the millions of dollars reducing unintended pregnancy would save each of our states.
This is the future we imagine. With the momentum of 50 years of impact, together, we can make it happen. Every woman deserves to feel as empowered as that Portland patient who walked into the new health center. By giving women control of their incredibly powerful bodies, we will continue to transform our communities and Northern New England.
On to the next 50 years,
Meagan
Mission Statement:
To provide, promote, and protect access to reproductive health care and sexuality education so that all people can make voluntary choices about their reproductive and sexual health.