Planned Parenthood to move to new Government Street facility

Planned Parenthood’s Baton Rouge chapter will move to a new Government Street location currently under renovation about a block away from its current address.

Construction permits were pulled in January for the site, located at 3825 Government St. Planned Parenthood intends to renovate the existing 6,000-square-foot building there into a 5,000-square-foot medical center with 1,000 square feet of office space.

According to permits filed with the city-parish, renovations were expected to cost about $865,000 at the time of the filing. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has two facilities in Louisiana—the center currently located at 3955 Government St., and a facility in New Orleans. Neither location performs abortions.

And as is the case at Baton Rouge’s current Planned Parenthood health center, abortions will not be performed at the new facility, says Rochelle Tafolla, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast vice president of communication and marketing. 

Tafolla says the new health center will take the place of the existing facility. Baton Rouge’s Planned Parenthood chapter has simply outgrown its current facility, she says. 

“We’re planning a bigger health center that will accommodate more patients,” Tafolla says.

The health center will have additional exam rooms and more space for patients, she says. There also may be space to accommodate educational trainings that now occur outside of the health care center. Tafolla says Planned Parenthood will continue to provide the same services at the new facility which include, but are not limited to, well-women exams, breast exams, cervical cancer screenings and pregnancy testing, among other services.

Tafolla says she isn’t sure what will happen to Planned Parenthood’s existing building, and she couldn’t give an exact timeframe for when the renovations will be completed. However, she says there is a need for more health care services as the center, which opened in Baton Rouge in 1984, is receiving visits from more men and women seeking affordable health care services.

A little more than 8,400 visits were made to Planned Parenthood in Baton Rouge last year, Tafolla says. In 2014, there were 8,612 health care visits.

“There are so many more people who need health care throughout Louisiana and certainly in the Baton Rouge area,” she says.

Tafolla says the number of health care visits can go up or down, but some people in need of reproductive health care turn to Planned Parenthood seeking affordable care if they lack health insurance. This could change now with Gov. John Bel Edwards’ decision to expand Medicaid coverage, she says.

—Alexandria Burris