Minnesota Pro-Life Advocates to Protest New Planned Parenthood Business 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 26, 2006
St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life advocates in Minnesota are planning to protest the opening of a new Planned Parenthood business in a local strip mall that is employing a new concept in trying to attract teenagers and young women. They say the new "express" clinic will employ devious tactics to lure teens into getting the morning after pill or abortion referrals.
Nancy Kiolbasa, director of the St. Croix Valley Life Care Center, is one of the people who plans to protest and she says the abortion business is putting kids in danger by giving out prescriptions of the morning after pill without a prescription.
"No doctor is involved. Kids are going into this Planned Parenthood express and walking out with a prescription," she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Planned Parenthood told the newspaper that a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant with prescribing authority will be present at all times to give out scripts for the Plan B drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion.
Kiolbasa told the Pioneer Press the morning-after pill is "a form of abortion, and we have a big problem with that."
What upsets pro-life advocates as well is the new business model the Planned Parenthood facility is using. The abortion business hopes to bring in new customers with products and services not normally found at Planned Parenthood.
Sarah Stoesz, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Minnesota told the Associated Press that the center is modeled after the 87 Planned Parenthood express clinics found in states like California, Illinois, Ohio, and Massachusetts, but takes the idea to a new level.
"Ours will have a very different look and feel," Stoesz said. "We’re going to the women where they spend their lives, to help them solve some of the problems in their lives."
Abortions won’t be done there, but it will sell lotions, essential oils and decorative carrying cases for birth control pills and condoms. Later on, the facility may add massages and other spa services.
The convenience factor — which has the center operating like a quick stop medical clinic for colds and minor issues — combined with the body products could make it attractive for the middle and upper-class residents of Woodbury, where it will be located.
Minnesota Sen. Brian LeClair, a Republican from Woodbury, said he will also participate in the protests, which will take place Saturday and next Thursday when the facility officially opens.
"One hundred percent yes, I do not want it in Woodbury," LeClair told the St. Paul newspaper.
The center will be positioned between a Mexican restaurant and a bank in its 1,250 square-foot mall storefront.
The express center also relies on another new Planned Parenthood concept — profit. The abortion business has always made money but with state and federal governments cutting back on family planning spending or diverting funds to pregnancy centers, Stoesz said Planned Parenthood locations have to become financially self-supportive.
Scott Fischbach, the head of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, says his group opposes the new facility, even though abortions aren’t going to be done there. He said Planned Parenthood will still refer women for abortions at its other locations.
"Where Planned Parenthood goes, you’re going to find abortion," Fischbach said. "They’re a failure because they’re addicted to abortion."
Related web sites:
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life – https://www.mccl.org
