Florida Planned Parenthood Affiliate Closes Amid Financial, Medical Problems 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 21, 2008
Palm Beach, FL (LifeNews.com) — A prominent Planned Parenthood affiliate in southern Florida has temporarily closed up shop after significant financial problems and mismanagement. Officials from the national Planned Parenthood abortion business closed down Planned Parenthood of South Palm Beach and Broward Counties just weeks ago.
The national representatives allegedly found both financial improprieties as well as medical problems at the facilities the affiliate ran.
Adrienne Kimmell, executive director of Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, told the Sun Sentinel newspaper that the affiliate shut down and began referring women to other abortion centers two weeks ago.
The national Planned Parenthood officials told the affiliate to close centers in Boca Raton, Oakland Park, Tamarac, Pembroke Pines and Deerfield Beach until it remedied the problems.
The newspaper indicated members of the local affiliate’s board had complained to the national office for as long as 18 months about the deficiencies.
"It’s quite apparent there were internal problems several of us were concerned about," former board member Estelle Loewenstein said. "I had concerns about management and about the financial stability of the affiliate."
Karen Ruffatto, the federation’s vice president for operations and affiliate relations, sent a statement to the newspaper about the closures and said they were to "make necessary service upgrades."
That the local group had financial concerns troubled even the newspaper’s editors who are concerned about the $441,000 in government funding the Children’s Services Councils of Palm Beach and Broward counties gave Planned Parenthood.
"Since when does an agency suspend programs, without much public announcement, to upgrade its services?" the newspaper wrote in a Friday editorial.
"That it operates with some public money increases its obligations to the public," the paper said. "That the agency has kept quiet all this time speaks poorly of its commitment to the public, especially for a group that was vocal when advocating public policy positions."
