13th Texas Planned Parenthood May Close After De-Funding

State   |   Susan Michelle   |   Nov 18, 2011   |   2:31PM   |   Tyler, TX

Yesterday I  was looking through some Planned Parenthood tax returns when I decided to look up my hometown Planned Parenthood in Tyler, Texas to see which affiliate it was associated with and see what I could surmise from the tax returns. Instead of finding what I was looking for, I found something better.

Note: To our patients:

Due to staffing issues, this Planned Parenthood location is temporarily closed. Our nearest location to serve you is in xxxxxxx. For patients able to travel there, xxxxx offers appointments and current patients may call to see if they are eligible to pick up supplies…. We do not anticipate open days here in October but will update this phone message as soon as we schedule open dates for November.

I called the office and the phone message indicates they opened for two days this week and will open for one day late in the month for “supplies.” They may open some days in December, but don’t know those yet. They refer callers and website visitors to the nearest office.

The nearest office is 77 miles away.

Reports have been saying that 12 Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas have been closed since SB 7, the bill defunding Planed Parenthood, was passed in the last legislative session. With a loss of over $64 million, it’s not surprising that so many would be out of business. They make big bucks sucking babies from the womb. And 12 clinic in 4 months is good but the clinic in Tyler isn’t one of those 12. It’s not technically closed, but clearly it couldn’t afford to be open these past two months more than a couple days, as opposed to their old 5-day a week schedule. Could Tyler be the perennial unlucky #13 of closed Planned Parenthoods in Texas? Are there more that are temporarily shut down like this, quietly unstaffed while the abortion centers try to scrounge together funds?

Texas governor, current Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry has taken his share of jabs in the press lately over gaffes in debates, but his record with Planned Parenthood and against abortion stands strong. It is, in fact Perry’s resolution to end abortion funding that has resulted in a whole lot of babies living in Texas.

See, folks, Planned Parenthood keeps telling us that abortion is only 3% of its services, though we know it’s actually more like 95% and they get that 3% from coding (an abortion has different parts such as office visits, follow ups, pregnancy test, etc., so each part gets coded differently but it’s all part of one abortion). If this low percentage were true then they could stop doing abortions, keep their money and stay profitable. If you took away 3% of my income, I would not be thrilled but neither would my standard of living change very much.

What Texas did was stop abortions all over the state. That’s why Planned Parenthood is not a fan of the affable Texas governor. Indeed, the abortion powerhouse said this to its supporters:

As governor of Texas, Rick Perry has pursued a single-minded agenda: take away women’s health care, destroy Planned Parenthood, and block women’s access to safe abortion care. Now he’s running for president and may push his anti-choice, anti-women’s health agenda on every woman in the country… He’s determined to enforce a cruel law designed to bring politicians into medical examination rooms and trample the rights of women and their doctors.

Actually, that’s exactly the kind of president I want. The fact that Planned Parenthood is scared of him makes me very pleased. Even the opposition points out that he is pro-life.

You see, Texas didn’t actually cut “family planning” or “women’s health care” as the pro-abortion folks allege; it simply removed funding for places that mix their dollars to kill babies at the same time. And it’s not the only one. Have a look at this report from Americans United for LIFE. It shows the effects of cutting abortion funding in several states.

This column isn’t a campaign endorsement for Perry. I admit I like him for a lot of reasons, but this is the biggest. He has a record of LIFE in his political career. He’s supported by Texas Alliance for Life and Texas Right to Life, and he’s hated by Planned Parenthood. He’s signed a sonogram bill and cut funding to Planned Parenthood. His actions are where his mouth is. And now it delights me to know that if a girl I taught in Tyler, TX gets pregnant, she might end up at a pro-life pregnancy counseling center or maybe a local doctor who isn’t biased and trying to make a buck on her abortion—and her baby might live. Today it hit close to home, literally, for me.

Whether or not Rick Perry is the next president of the United States, we need to be sure we put a pro-life man or woman in office. And let’s make sure in this late hour of human history we don’t just take their word for it but we look at their actions.

Lives are at stake. Just ask some babies in Tyler, TX.

LifeNews Note:  This column originally appeared at Bound4Life’s blog and is reprinted with permission.