A new Planned Parenthood opened in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the second abortion facility to open in the city this year.
Oklahoma City was the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without an abortion facility until a few months ago. The Trust Women South Wind Women’s Center gained attention on Sept. 10 for being the first abortion facility to open in the city in 40 years.
Planned Parenthood became the second on Tuesday, according to the Norman Transcript.
The new abortion center, located in Warr Acres, a northwestern suburb of Oklahoma City, will perform chemical abortions, the Wichita Eagle reports. The new facility will not offer surgical abortions.
Planned Parenthood also operates two other facilities in the city. Neither perform abortions, but both refer women to abortion facilities that do.
“PPGP opened its new health center so that patients have one more trusted option in Oklahoma City and we will continue providing the excellent care patients have come to know and trust, in spite of some of the toughest medically unnecessary restrictions against abortion providers in the nation,” Planned Parenthood Great Plains president and CEO, Laura McQuade, said in a statement.
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From late 2014 to Sept. 10, the city did not have any abortion facilities. Its last abortion facility closed in December 2014 after abortionist Naresh Patel allegedly sold abortion drugs to women who were not pregnant. Patel also previously faced charges for allegedly raping and sodomizing his abortion patients.
The other new abortion facility, South Wind, is the project of Julie Burkhart, a businesswoman who has a shady reputation, having once run an abortion clinic for late-term abortionist George Tiller. She also owns and runs an abortion business in Wichita, Kansas.
There are not many details about Burkhart’s new abortion facility; however, she previously hinted that they will do late-term abortions. She previously told Bloomberg that they will perform abortions on unborn babies up to 24 weeks, LifeNews reported.
Burkhart estimated that they will see about 1,500 women at the new facility in the first year and twice as many in the second year. Abortion estimates were not provided for the new Planned Parenthood facility.
In 2015, 4,330 unborn babies lost their lives to abortion in Oklahoma, according to the state Department of Health.
Local pro-lifers, including pregnancy centers, are preparing to increase their outreach in response to Burkhart’s new abortion business. They likely will do the same with the new Planned Parenthood.
Barbara Chishko, director of Birth Choices pregnancy centers, said they will continue serving women and providing life-affirming options, even if they have abortions.
“We have built this facility for our pregnant women irregardless of what they’re going to decide because we know that this is better than abortion. They deserve better than that. We want to give them the best we have to offer,” Chishko told KFOR, previously. “I became involved because of my faith and my belief system in that I believe life is precious. Life is a gift from God and it would be wrong to return that gift unopened.”
