Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Heather Jacoby plays the piano with her 7-year-old daughter, Billie. Jacoby, who received lifesaving treatment at a Planned Parenthood facility, is upset by efforts to end federal funding for the organization.

Heather Jacoby plays the piano with her 7-year-old daughter, Billie. Jacoby, who received lifesaving treatment at a Planned Parenthood facility, is upset by efforts to end federal funding for the organization.

Heather Jacoby of Vacaville, shown with daughter Billie and dog Jazzie, says she was referred to Planned Parenthood by an emergency room doctor.

Heather Jacoby of Vacaville, shown with daughter Billie and dog Jazzie, says she was referred to Planned Parenthood by an emergency room doctor.

Nationwide Planned Parenthood protests energize patients, opponents

Damien Cox didnt have health insurance for most of his life. So when the transgender man began transitioning 11 years ago, he went to a Planned Parenthood clinic for hormone treatments.

Planned Parenthood isnt just a womans thing, said Cox, a 40-year-old Sunnyvale resident. Its a queer health issue and a trans health issue. It affects everybody.

Cox is among those voicing support for the nonprofit reproductive health organization at what could be a critical moment in its history. President Trump and his administration have threatened to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, because the services provided by the clinics include abortions.

On Saturday, the debate will crest with nationwide rallies including at clinics in San Francisco, Redwood City and Napa calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

The whole issue would go away if they just didnt offer abortion services, said Monica Migliorino Miller, a Michigan resident who is part of a coalition of antiabortion groups that organized the demonstrations.

Supporters are planning counter-protests, arguing that a loss of funding would hurt an array of patients, and in particular low-income and minority communities. Planned Parenthoods services include prenatal care, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, cancer and diabetes screenings and vaccinations.

In the fiscal year that ended in June 2015, Planned Parenthood received $553.7 million in Medicaid reimbursements and federal grant money, according to the groups latest annual report 43 percent of its total budget.

Under federal law, none of that money went toward abortion services, which make up 3 percent of all services provided, barring situations where a womans life was in danger or cases of incest and rape, said Gilda Gonzales, the interim chief executive of the organizations Northern California affiliate.

If the group was defunded, Gonzales said, 60 percent of Planned Parenthoods clientele would lose care provided under Medicaid and the Title X family planning program. The vast majority of patients in Northern California range from ages 20 to 35, are people of color and live below the poverty line, she said.

But opponents of abortion believe stripping all federal funding will help their cause. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27, said ending taxpayer abortions was a priority for the new administration.

At a GOP debate in Houston in February 2016, Trump pointed out that millions and millions of women cervical cancer, breast cancer are helped by Planned Parenthood. But he said, I would defund it because of the abortion factor, which they say is 3 percent. I dont know what percentage it is. They say its 3 percent. But I would defund it, because Im pro-life.

Republicans in both the House and Senate plan to introduce measures to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood and ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which Trump has pledged to sign.

While supporters of the group say the right to a safe abortion is critical, they are also working to bring more awareness to Planned Parenthoods other services. They include Nique Eagen, a 41-year-old Campbell resident, who will be among an expected 3,000 counter-protesters in San Jose.

For years, Eagen said she suffered through intense pain and nausea during her menstrual cycles, but didnt understand why.

I would get really, really sick, Eagen said. I was getting dehydrated. Id black out because I was losing too much blood.

After she lost her job in 2010, she sought care from Planned Parenthood and learned that the cause of her pain was ovarian cysts a problem that was solved by taking birth control, which keeps the cysts from growing, she said.

Heather Jacoby, a 31-year-old Vacaville resident, said she turned to Planned Parenthood when she ran out of other options.

Last summer, she was thrilled when she found out she was pregnant. But within weeks, she wound up in the emergency room due to severe pain, vomiting and blacking out. She had lost the baby and gone into septic shock.

I was carrying a dead fetus inside me for over six weeks. I felt hopeless, Jacoby said.

Jacoby didnt want an abortion but needed one to save her life. She had insurance, but said her primary care provider didnt immediately schedule the procedure. When she ended up in the emergency room, a doctor referred her to Planned Parenthood in Walnut Creek, she said.

I still remember the day because two of my good friends gave birth that day, Jacoby said. Before it started, I just started crying because this is the culmination of six weeks and I was so exhausted and I just remember the nurse (at Planned Parenthood) grabbed my hand and looked in my eyes and said, I got you.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani

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Nationwide Planned Parenthood protests energize patients, opponents - SFGate

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