For all its claims of being an essential women’s health care provider, Planned Parenthood is closing a lot of clinics.
The Morning Call reports a Pennsylvania affiliate of Planned Parenthood recently announced plans to close two more facilities. The abortion group’s Easton and Bristol clinics will close at the end of March, according to the report.
The Easton Planned Parenthood performed chemical abortions, and the Bristol facility made abortion referrals. Local Planned Parenthood officials said they hope patients will go to their Bensalem and Allentown centers. Abortions are performed at the Allentown location up to 13 weeks, 6 days.
The news comes soon after the Pennsylvania affiliate closed three other facilities late last year in Chambersburg, Gettysburg and Scranton. None of these facilities performed abortions either.
Melissa Reed, president of Planned Parenthood Keystone, told the newspaper that the closings have nothing to do with federal lawmakers’ plans to defund it.
“It resulted from careful analysis of where our patients live and seek medical care as well as an assessment of how best to ensure the longevity and strength of existing health centers …” Reed said in a statement in December.
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Here’s more from the latest report:
She said the changes aren’t related to the Republican control of the White House and Congress, which has given weight to long-time threats to pull the organization’s federal funds because it provides abortion services. In the face of such funding loss, Planned Parenthood has vowed to continue on in some form. …
A new health clinic is slated to open April 5 in Easton’s West Ward, and it will be able to serve those patients. Neighborhood Health Centers of the Lehigh Valley received federal funding to open a clinic at the Two River Health and Wellness Foundation building at 1101 Northampton St.
Executive Director Melissa Miranda said the clinic will provide all the same services Planned Parenthood provided, except for abortions, and will also provide services on a sliding fee scale.
Local pro-life leader Sal Rizzo, the president of Pennsylvanians for Human Life Bethlehem Easton, welcomed the news of the closing.
“This Planned Parenthood facility will no longer reside in the vicinity of two local high schools (Easton Area HS and Wilson Area HS),” Rizzo told LifeNews. “Thank you to all who came out to peacefully protest and pray. Their efforts resulted in this victory.”
Planned Parenthood is closing clinics in other states, too. LifeNews reported in January about two non-abortion Planned Parenthood facilities closing in Massachusetts. They gave client numbers and their budget as reasons.
The closings of these rural, non-abortion clinics are interesting given that Planned Parenthood has repeatedly claimed it needs taxpayer funding to help patients in rural, under-served communities.
American Life League reports Planned Parenthood closed 27 facilities in 2016, and its total number of facilities are down by one third. This is despite receiving strong support from the Obama Administration, including nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding.
Planned Parenthood also is performing fewer non-abortion services, according to its annual reports from the past several years. From 2010 to 2014, Planned Parenthood reports showed dramatic decreases in the actual health services it provides, including breast cancer screenings, pap tests and STD tests and treatments.
Its abortion numbers, however, have remained fairly steady in the past few years (its 2016 report is not out yet), despite so many of its facilities closing. This and other factors indicate the abortion chain is concentrating more on its money-making abortion business than ever before.
