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Page 8. iMay 17, 1973. PHOENIXYou needn%u2019t weaia party dress...but selecting your floor coverings atPINTCHIKcan be a very festive occasion.Women Take Over LocalBY CORRINE COLEMANPINTCHIKFinest Qualityfor 81 yearsWith luxurious carpeting in a rainbow of colors, tiles and linoleum to suit every taste and preference, selecting floor coverings at PINTCHIK may prove as much fun as enjoying them in your home. If you haven%u2019t satisfied your creative urges choosing patterns and colors, try our easy do-it-yourself floor coverings.478 Bergen Street (at Flatbush)783-3333312 Court St. near SackettMA 5-2835The somewhat euphemistically named Brooklyn Project for Reproductive Health that opened last summer in Brooklyn Heights has recently begun its second evolution under the leadership of five women who took over last November.The project, set up on two floors in a Remsen St. office building is geared for the performance of vacuum aspiration abortion, endometrial aspiration (commonly called menstrual extraction and used seven to ten days after a missed period when a pregnancy test does not yet show a positive result), as well as family planning, contraception and general reproductive health care.Previously headed by an allmale administration and depicted by the early leadership as a haven of sensitivity %u2014 a far cry from the back room or kitchen attitude and even from the impersonality of hospital abortions arrangements, the project was in reality not providing that concern for its women patients, Nancy McGee, the new administrator says. Rather, she explains, the project%u2019s backers who were hearing little that was positive about their investment, became interested in a new arrangement for heading the clinic, the only such set up in Brooklyn.As a leader in the %u201cCoalition for Free Choice in Abortion,%u201d an organization formed to combat last year%u2019s attempt to repeal the New York State Abortion Law, McGee has been able to check out the various Clinics which had sprung up around New York since the law%u2019s passage in 1970. Contacted by the private owners of the Brooklyn Heights center, she agreed to head the project if she could change the rest of the administration as well as the staff. Given the go-ahead, McGee brought in four of the women who had previously worked with her at the Eastern Women%u2019s Center in Manhattan, and kept but one physician, Dr. Chompel Mahapaurya, who is now the Medical Director.The women at the helm, McGee; Mary .Hopkins, head counselor; Ann McKnight, head nurse; Bonnie Garry, administrator; and Betsy Starrett, appointments and counseling, feel that the project is now under way toward becoming the personalized, caring careful facility which it was originally supposed to be.Noting the women checking in at the clinic and then sitting nervously in the waiting room, it becomes evident that more than just proper medical attention is indicated for procedures so often fraught with fear and guilt. ThoughBrooklyn%u2019s onlyBookstore for kidsTues-Thur 2-6 Sat. 10:30-5:30 Sun. Nooru5:30Three of the women heading the new regime at the Brooklyn Project for Reproductive Health:(from left) Ann McKnight, Betsy Sterrett and Mary Hopkins, seated around table displaying contraceptive devices and birth control literature.PHOENIX PHOTO by Francois Dumainethe Project%u2019s equipment is first rate, the Physician%u2019s Board certified or registered, the laboratory well supplied and the rooms wel.' furnished, it is also important that the women patients be talked to all along the way, their questions answered, their fears discussed.Mary Hopkins has set up the counseling program to make the experience as unstressfui as possible she points out. In this brief contact with the patient she tries to dispel the myths around the procedure and to help her relate to an overall view of controlling her own future with reproduction and contraception information offered. By being open, informative and helping the woman participate in the decision, a breakthrough is made into the old medical mystique, Hopkins says.Counseling begins before the abortion with an explanation of the procedure, discussion about qualms and some talk about contraception, Hopkins says. After the experience the patient is en couraged to discuss her feelings, conflicts and future birth control plans. The last stage of counseling involves hygiene discussion provision of birth control devices and appointments for follow-up two or three weeks later.Ann McKnight details the work performed at the clinic which includes a lab work up on every patient, pregnancy, V. D., Anemia, Pap and sickle-cell testing, and blood typing. She emphasizes that the clinic as a family planning center is open for discussions of problems, questions and check ups. Pregnancy tests are free and charges for check up and birth control devices are minimal she notes, with first check up at $15. and later exams $10., Diaphragms and I. U. D%u2019s $30. Fees for abortions which are performed two days each week are $150. with general anesthesia, and $125. with local. Endometrial aspiration is performed on three days, and fee for that procedure is $50. McKnight advises that the clinic%u2019s license to accept Medicaid is now pending and an early acceptance of that coverage is hoped for.child's Play 226 ATLANTIC 237-2656Dr Fochell K. Jehoshaphaf D.D.famous radio and TV personalitywith special talentsCall 7 8 3 -0 6 8 7 every Sunday, 4 PM -7PM.a special consultant and advisor on marriages, divorces, child problems, infant dedications and all other problems. 51 Clark St. St. G eorge H otel 4th f|Nurse Ann McKnight and Technician Cora Grefaldon check outtest results at Lab of Brooklyn Project for Reproductive Healthon Remsen St.Betsy Starrett talks about Endometrial Aspiration which only a few months ago was heralded as %u201ca morning after%u201d procedure. %u201cIt is not a method of birth control,%u201d she warns about the process of evacuation of thf uterus with a 4 mm cannula without dilation of the cervix. And even if a woman thinks she might be pregnant it is best for her to wait at least 5-6 days or %u201cas a matter of fact I%u2019d like to talk them out of it and have them get a regular abortion at reduced fee,%u201d she adds. Though the procedure has been considered 98.6 per cent effective, it is possible that many of the women were not pregnant to begin with. Starrett has seen many women who have continued a pregnancy despite performance of the procedure, she says, and one of menstrual extraction%u2019s most fervent adherents, Jeanne Webb,was discovered to have required an abortion because the procedure did not work one month. The Brooklyn Project emphasizes the need for a pregnancy test within two to four weeks after endometrial extraction to insure that there is no pregnancy.Starrett would like to see the clinic become part of the community, particularly part of the local goings on related to women%u2019s issues. Though self-education groups on such topics as contraception, reproduction and reproductive health are currently being held at the center, they would like to expand this as an aspect of community involvement. %u201cWhile we have all become conscious of our relationships aswomen to society and to the medical profession, we need to learn more,%u201d she emphasizes.Bell Moving & Storage373 ATLANTIC AVE. 625-9609_______________ I I _____________l i l Repro nn e a ir n rro |e c r