Colorado Planned Parenthood Finishes New Denver Abortion Center Early
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 8, 2008
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) — Planned Parenthood in Colorado has finished its new building three months ahead of schedule and the massive facility will do abortions and serve as a political headquarters for its election campaigns. The building, located at East 38th Avenue and Pontiac Street in the suburb of Stapleton, opened last week.
The three-story facility has seen pro-life advocates protesting outside since construction began in November on the renovated United Airlines building.
They ultimately boycotted Weitz construction company and were able to get some of the subcontractors to quit the project, but Planned Parenthood acted as its own general contractor and moved ahead.
Leslie Durgin, senior vice president for community development of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, talked with the Denver Post about the new abortion business.
"It’s really important to us that we are open to the community," she said. "We really want to be part of this community and this neighborhood."
But Leslie Hanks of Colorado Right to Life, says her group will continue protesting at the abortion center.
"The unjust taking of human lives will be opposed for as long as the killing goes on," she said.
During the building process, pro-life advocates complained the building was constructed in secret and without full disclosure to the community or local officials.
Planned Parenthood purchased the land it’s using to build the new abortion center from United Airlines.
During the approval process for starting the building project, Iowa-based contractor Weitz Company listed United as the owner of the property to hide Planned Parenthood’s ownership of the land.
Planned Parenthood set up a front group called Fuller 38 to set up all of the operations.
According to documents from the city of Denver, Planned Parenthood created Fuller 38 in December 2006 and purchased the land at 7155 East 38th Ave from United weeks later for $1.35 million.
No one knew about the new abortion center until August or that the new facility will house the pro-abortion group’s headquarters and an abortion facility in the same 50,000-square foot space.
Will Duffy, a spokesman with Colorado Families Against Planned Parenthood, told WorldNetDaily that the demolition permit in May and the construction permit in October both say United owned the building. He said the city indicated Weitz is responsible for putting the owner on the proper documents.
Colorado pro-life advocates met with representatives of the building firm and hoped to persuade it to boycott the project and refuse to build the abortion center, but found considerable resistance.
Durgin previously admitted to the Denver Post that she hoped the abortion center could be built secretly.
Planned Parenthood purchased the property, located down the street from Martin Luther King park, under a different name to keep the purchase secret, she said. Now that construction is set to begin, the abortion business is changing tactics.
"We changed that several months ago. We just decided that wasn’t right for us," Durgin said. "We anticipate we will have protests."
Planned Parenthood began using the secret tactics when pro-life groups successfully got construction workers and firms to boycott building an abortion center in Austin, Texas. The abortion center eventually opened but the tactics delayed that for several months.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains does about 8,800 abortions annually on women from Colorado and four surrounding states.
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