Oregon Planned Parenthood’s Move Within Portland Upsets Black Pro-Lifers

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 14, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Oregon Planned Parenthood’s Move Within Portland Upsets Black Pro-Lifers Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 14
, 2007

Portland, OR (LifeNews.com) — The Planned Parenthood abortion business is growing and its leaders want to move its large center to a part of Portland where city officials have been hoping to revitalize a formerly run-down area. But the move, which would place the abortion center in a predominantly black community, upsets pro-life African-Americans.

The abortion business is slated to move to the heart of the city’s black community by opening a new facility on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette would open a new abortion center with more than 140 employees.

But the Oregonian newspaper says that’s not good news to community leaders like Rev. LeRoy Haynes Jr., pastor at the nearby Allen Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

"If they would bring a clinic that does abortions, that would be a big issue in our community," he told the newspaper. "It is a moral, faith-based issue to me."

The Portland Development Commission, which is working to spruce up the neighborhood there, is expected to review the relocation today. They appear to be supportive of the move because they want it to help revitalize the area, which has struggled from neglect after race riots in the 1960s.

David Greenberg, president of the abortion business, told the Oregonian that it’s moving because it’s experiencing more funding and more demand for its family planning services and has run out of space at its current location in the Southeast part of town.

Last year, Oregonians voted against the proposal by a 54-46 percentage margin after Planned Parenthood outspent pro-life advocates 3-1 and flooded the airwaves with a misleading television commercial.

But, thanks to efforts from Oregon Right to Life and crisis pregnancy centers, abortions in Oregon are down to their lowest levels since 1998, having decreased 20 percent between then and 2004, the latest year from which state data is available.

The Oregon Department of Human Services reported 14,344 abortions in 1998, but that number decreased to 11,443 abortions in 2004.

Related web sites:
Oregon Right to Life – https://www.ortl.org