De-Funding Shuts Down Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 1, 2011   |   5:01PM   |   Brownsville, Texas

A Planned Parenthood abortion referral clinic in Brownsville, Texas is the latest to close down thanks to the Texas state legislature and Governor Rick Perry signing a bill that yanks much of the taxpayer funding for the abortion business.

Although the Planned Parenthood clinic at 5636 Southmost Road, which closed at the end of October, did not do abortions itself, all Planned Parenthood centers refer pregnant women for abortions and none of them provide mamograms while very few offer legitimate medical services for pregnant women.

Yvonne Gutierrez, the vice president for public affairs for the Planned Parenthood Trust of South Texas, and Cynthia Contreras, general manger for Planned Parenthood clinics in Brownsville, Harlingen and Kingsville, complained about the de-funding in an interview with the Brownsville Herald newspaper about the closing.

“They couldn’t believe that the little help that they were getting was being taken away from them,” Contreras said of patients affected by the closure. “We actually had a few who were asking us for phone numbers; who do they contact to let them know it was a hit.”

Gutierrez said “Planned Parenthood does not provide abortions anywhere in the Valley.”

The facility was located at its present facility for five years and had been in the area at three other locations over the course of 14 years. With the closure, the Planned Parenthood clinic at 370 Old Port Isabel Road is the only one the abortion business operates in Brownsville.

Jonathan Saenz, legislative director for Liberty Institute, which supported SB 7 at the Texas Capitol to de-fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of $34 million, applauded the vote and says the bill “effectively ends taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in Texas. “The passing of this legislation is a defining moment in Texas history for the pro-life and taxpayer protection movement,” he said. “Texas leaders have sent a clear message: Planned Parenthood and similar abortion groups can no longer use taxpayer funds to support their agenda.”

Texas Right to Life also supported the bill and its director, Jim Graham, said, “The most evil, filthy organization in America, Planned Parenthood, might actually have to close.”

“State and federal dollars should go to health care providers who do not provide or refer for abortion,” he said. “While the amount of funds allocated to family planning has steadily increased over the years, 81,851 women in Texas still chose abortion in 2008, the last year for which data is available.  Our tax dollars should not go to the abortion industry under the guise of family planning.”

The state budget allocated $166,030,952 to family planning. Estimates are that Planned Parenthood currently receives approximately $30 million a year in tax-payer funds in Texas, and its own annual report confirms $363 million received nationwide. More than 300 non-abortion agencies across the state qualify to provide family planning services and they do not do abortions or refer for them.

Planned Parenthood of Central Texas closed two of its centers earlier this year and Planned Parenthood Association of Hidalgo County closed four centers in September.

The closings come after another Planned Parenthood affiliate closed its abortion-referral facility in Sherman in the northern part of the state as a direct result of the bill Governor Rick Perry signed that the Texas legislature approved revoking taxpayer funding for the abortion business.

The center closed our months after former manager Ramona Trevino resigned her post at Planned Parenthood. Trevino is now speaking out about her pro-life conversion and resulting exodus from the organization responsible for the most abortions in the United States.

The closing followed news that Planned Parenthood would no longer do abortions at some Arizona locations because it declined to follow new pro-life laws enacted in that state.

Meanwhile, a California-based abortion business closed in July after 40 Days for Life pro-life prayer events there.

Earlier this year, Family Planning Associates, one of the largest abortion center chains in California, closed the abortion business it runs in Newport Beach. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman informed LifeNews about the closing of the FPA abortion facility and he said the Newport Beach location is one “where pro-lifers have been sidewalk counseling and praying for decades” and “its closure is an encouragement that we are winning.”

With FPA closing up shop in Newport Beach, it joins the closing of all five Golden Gate Community Health locations in the San Francisco area. Formerly known as Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, the GGCH abortion centers closed after financial problems and mismanagement forced national Planned Parenthood officials to disaffiliate the local affiliate.

Also earlier this year, two Pennsylvania abortion clinics operated by abortionist Soleiman M. Soli were closed by state officials in the wake of the discovery of Kermit Gosnell’s “house of horrors” where he killed a woman in a botched abortion and killed hundreds of babies in birth-induced abortions that are essentially infanticides. Soli closed the clinics and retired rather than clean them up.

The closings follow the permanent closure of a Planned Parenthood abortion referral center in Ohio. 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.