Portland, Oregon Abortion Business Delayed Another 60 Days for Permit
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 14, 2008
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) — Women and children in Oregon will get another 60 day reprieve before Planned Parenthood builds a new abortion business in a historically black area targeting them. City officials in Portland, Oregon were expected to close the deal on Wednesday, but the developers weren’t ready.
As a result, it will take another 60 days before the Portland Development Commission gives the final go-ahead for building the new abortion center.
Beech Street Partners is the developer of the new abortion business, which will be located at Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Beech Street.
Bill Diss, the head of a local group trying to stop or delay the new abortion center says he is working to get more calls and emails to Portland officials, but the PDC told KATU-TV that it has signed a legally-binding agreement and can’t go back on the decision.
Diss, the director of Precious Children of Portland, told LifeNews.com that the original documents show the new abortion center’s completion as October 2008 and he believes pro-life advocates in Portland successfully delayed that.
Planned Parenthood Columbia-Willamette’s abortion business is growing and its leaders want to move its large center to a part of Portland where city officials had been hoping to revitalize a formerly run-down area.
It initially said it would open a new abortion center with more than 140 employees.
Diss and local residents have complained about the racial component to the decision.
"Planned Parenthood wants to move and enlarge their headquarters and abortion center from an area in southeast Portland with a black population of about 1% and place it in the King neighborhood that has a black population of about 43%," he explains.
"Portland only has an overall population of about 6% Blacks. Planned Parenthood will reduce this number even more with their new facility," Diss says.
PPCW is scheduled to close on a deal on Wednesday with the city of Portland to use urban renewal land for building the giant Planned Parenthood facility.
"Portland Development Commission, the urban renewal agency for the area, owns the land and wants to use it to kill babies," Diss says. "We do not want the City of Portland to work with Planned Parenthood and sell urban renewal land to build a prenatal killing center."
Diss is encouraging pro-life advocates to contact Mayor Tom Potter, Mayor Elect and City Commissioner Sam Adams, and Bruce Warner, the Portland Development Commission Director.
The Oregon Department of Human Services reported 14,344 abortions in 1998, but that number decreased to 11,443 abortions in 2004.
ACTION: Contact the following officials and urge strong opposition to the new Planned Parenthood abortion center: Mayor Tom Potter (503-823-4120, [email protected]), City Commissioner Sam Adams (503-823-3008), and Bruce Warner (503-823-3200 [email protected])
Related web sites:
Precious Children for Portland – https://www.preciouschildrenofportland.org
Oregon Right to Life – https://www.ortl.org
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