Local teen health services close

In July, San Mateo’s Planned Parenthood location, which provided abortion and other medical services, ceased operations. On Aug. 1, StarVista, a mental health services provider for San Mateo County, permanently closed. Two of StarVista’s programs — their hotline, which is part of the national 988 crisis network, and the San Mateo Pride Center — will continue.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, an affiliate organization that manages Planned Parenthood clinics in California and Nevada, recently closed five clinics in the Bay Area and the Central Coast. This occurred after the One Big Beautiful Bill was legalized on July 4, which prohibits using Medicaid payments to pay for medical services from abortion providers. The majority of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte patients used Medicaid.

“The fact that the bill is directly targeting abortion clinics and removing funds, and in turn making it even harder for women to get abortions, is completely sexist, since people are trying to control women’s bodies instead of them being in charge of themselves,” said junior Ash Adams.

In addition to abortion services, Planned Parenthood offers assistance with birth control, contraception, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Sexually Transmitted Infection testing and treatment, gender-affirming care and mental health services. All other Planned Parenthood Mar Monte locations remain open, having cut prenatal and behavioral health services.

In response to the Trump administration’s funding restriction on Medicaid medical services in the One Big Beautiful Bill, California has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration with 22 other states. They argue that the restriction breaches Planned Parenthood’s First Amendment rights. Planned Parenthood has also sued the Trump administration separately.
The Redwood City Health Center is now the only remaining Planned Parenthood clinic in San Mateo County.

STARVISTA
After struggling with finances, StarVista shut down its services. According to StarVista, the organization served tens of thousands of people every year, with programs including housing for youth, counseling, outreach and crisis prevention.

“We had help, and [the closures are] taking it away,” said junior Olivia Ren. “It’s not a good feeling that your rights are taken away … it shouldn’t be all of a sudden, ‘You’re taking away our mental health.’”
Similarly to Planned Parenthood, StarVista also had a confidential policy, allowing teenagers to use their services without parental knowledge.

“It is very effective … because you could reach out to [them] really easily,” Ren said. “My friends have used StarVista and they say, you could text them [and] you could call them … A lot of times, you don’t want to talk to people around you because you feel like they might judge you. But if you could contact some [mental health service provider] online, then you feel less judged by other people, and you feel more open about talking. Safety [services are also] really important, because I would have regretted it if I died [because of mental health struggles].”

Some believe that StarVista’s closure will impact how much help those struggling with their mental health will receive.

“For a lot of people, the road that they were going [on] to to get help is now shut down, and there’s no way to go back,” said sophomore Mckenna Lindberg. “A lot of people are gonna separate themselves more because they no longer have this space where they can talk about what they’re feeling emotionally and not having those resources is going to stop a lot of people from reaching out to ask for help … possibly life-saving help.”

While StarVista has closed, other mental health service providers remain open. However, not all of these providers may be free of cost, as StarVista was.

“Many [other mental health providers] are very costly that I [have] encountered, and especially if you were to find a psychiatrist, it’s very expensive,” Ren said. “A lot of people might not have those resources. And it also takes super long for the [finding-a-therapist] process to work.”

Although the San Mateo County Pride Center continues to operate under new ownership, services have been reduced and it has temporarily moved to being remote. The Pride Center also provides mental health services in partnership with Outlet, an Adolescent Counseling Services program.