Oregon Planned Parenthood Expands Abortion Business

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 21, 2004   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Oregon Planned Parenthood Expands Abortion Business

by Paul Nowak
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
June 21, 2004

Gresham, OR (LifeNews.com) — A Planned Parenthood facility near Portland will than double its space this week as it opens an expanded business in Gresham.

Operated by Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, the new office for the Gresham facility is expected to receive 6,000 patients a year, in addition to those visiting the old business, which had 7,000 visitors last year.

"During the opening of Planned Parenthood’s new Salem clinic, they boasted that now they would be able to perform more abortions," said Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life. "For sure, they will use this new Gresham clinic to facilitate more abortions. With the opening of this new clinic, it will be more dangerous for Gresham’s unborn children than it even was before."

The new facility will not perform surgical abortions, though it will distribute the dangerous abortion pill that was responsible for the death of teenager Holly Patterson in California.

Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette has been expanding its business by upgrading and expanding its eight facilities in Oregon and Washington.

Women in the Gresham area do have access to pregnancy help and support, as Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland operates a clinic in Gresham as well — one that has served over 10,000 new patients each year for the past three years, and is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

Larry Gadbaugh, CEO of the organization, told LifeNews.com that the Gresham clinic is the most-visited of the six offices Pregnancy Resource Centers of Greater Portland operates, and, for a number of years, it had the highest client load of any pregnancy center in the nation.

The Gresham clinic provides many of the same services that Planned Parenthood affiliates do, such as pregnancy tests, counseling, and referrals, though it does not refer women to abortion businesses. They also provide material assistance, such as clothing, and free ultrasounds, as well as post-abortion support.

The help is paying off — for women and their babies.

"Three out of four abortion-vulnerable women that come to us choose life after having an ultrasound," Gadbaugh told LifeNews.com.

Gadbaugh added that his organization is setting a goal to reduce abortions in the Portland area by 25 percent in the next five years, in time for the Pregnancy Resource Centers’ 25th anniversary.

Related Sites:
Oregon Right to Life – https://www.ortl.org