Planned Parenthood to Close Ohio Facility North of Columbus

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 17, 2011   |   11:49AM   |   Galion, OH

Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio will be closing one of its centers north of Columbus, in Galion, because it says it is has come up on financial difficulties that make it necessary to consolidate.

The closing is good news for pro-life advocates who are hoping the abortion business runs fewer centers like the one in the small Ohio city that makes abortion referrals.

The Galion Health Center at 401 Harding Way East has been open for decades but, in a letter sent to the Galion Inquirer newspaper last week, Trish Malko said it would close. Malko and Tara Broderick, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio urged financial support for the troubled abortion business and said patients at the Galion clinic can go to the one it operates in Mansfield. They said the Galion center was seeing fewer clients and it required the closing of the facility.

“This was really a difficult decision for us, but due to hours and declining number of clients at the Galion location we’ve decided to close,” Broderick told the newspaper.

The location in Galion will officially shut down on March 29 and Planned Parenthood informed clients by letter of the Mansfield location, where Malko says, “Clients of the Galion location will be welcome at the Mansfield Health Center.”

Although the Galion center did not do abortions and just made abortion referrals, Planned Parenthood has confirmed its plans to expand its abortion business nationwide. It came under fire from one of its own affiliates in Texas, which left the national abortion business because it did not want to operate an abortion facility. Corpus Christie, Texas based Planned Parenthood of South Texas affiliate announced it has resigned its status as a network of clinics aligned with Planned Parenthood because of the new abortion mandate.

Later, Lisa David, senior vice president of Health Services Support for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, confirmed the abortion expansion and the mandate in an interview. The mandate would compel every Planned Parenthood affiliate to run at least one abortion center.

Earlier this year, David said the 85 regions or affiliates aligned with Planned Parenthood must operate an abortion center by 2013 — which would ensure all 820 Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide either do abortions or provide abortion referrals to a Planned Parenthood abortion center.

In February, a new report the Planned Parenthood national abortion business recently released showed  the embattled agency did more abortions in 2009 than it has done in any prior year. The report also shows it providing fewer pregnant women with non-abortion services.