Planned Parenthood in Michigan Buys Facility for New Abortion Center

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 1, 2010   |   12:49PM   |   Auburh Hills, MI

Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan has purchased a new building that it plans to use to house a new abortion facility in this suburb north of Detroit.

Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan purchased the office building at 1625 N. Opdyke Road in Auburn Hills from Fidelity Bank. The commercial real estate company CoStar indicates the buy came in at $733,150, or about $43 per square foot.

“The buyer will occupy the property as a new clinic and office location. The facility is estimated to open in May/June of next year,” the firm said in a statement about the sale.

Mason L. Capitani and Garry Rogers of L. Mason Capitani represented the seller, and JP Champine, Carole Lieberman Rich and Barbara Eaton of Jones Lang LaSalle represented Planned Parenthood in its purchase of the building.

In April, the Planned Parenthood affiliate announced it was planning to build a new abortion center and cited President Barack Obama’s signing the pro-abortion health care bill as the reason why.

The new abortion business would add to the 15 locations it already operates in the Detroit area, which reaches as many as 55,000 customers annually. Unlike some of the other Detroit centers, which only dispense birth control and contraception, the new center will likely do abortions.

Lori Lamerand, executive director of the Planned Parenthood affiliate, told the Detroit News in April that the health care bill is responsible for the decision to open the new abortion facility.

She said then that Planned Parenthood expects “an onslaught” of women coming to its centers in the wake of the health care bill, which includes massive abortion funding expected to go to Planned Parenthood.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve been getting calls that go, ‘I’m pregnant, we don’t have health insurance, my husband isn’t working and we can’t afford another child.’ These calls have become routine for us,” says Lamerand.

The folks at the St. Michael Society said they were not surprised by the announcement.

“Now that women will be able to not only get access to more birth control but they will be able to finally get those free, or at least government-subsidized, abortions that so-called women’s rights groups have been clamoring for,” the group said in response at the time.

“We predict this is only the beginning. Like we always said, the bill is the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade and the abortion industry stands to gain a huge windfall, thanks to President Obama, his allies in Congress and of course, to Bart Stupak,” it added.