On the same day as the wonderful news came of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of pro-life free speech rights outside of abortion facilities, Asheville’s only abortion clinic, Femcare, announced that it is shutting down on Saturday. The clinic’s owner, Dr. Lorraine Cummings, is retiring.
That may not be the full story though. As LifeNews reported, Dr. Cummings put the building up for sale three months ago and stopped accepting appointments. This was shortly after the clinic had its license suspended in 2013 due to two dozen serious health and safety concerns found during a routine health inspection.
Unfortunately, Asheville will not be abortion-free for long if Planned Parenthood gets their way. ABC 13 reports that Planned Parenthood intends to have another Asheville abortion facility open in December.
Watch ABC’s report below:
From the report:
Planned Parenthood representatives say they have been working closely with Femcare over their closing. “When they approached us and said that Dr. Cummings would be retiring, we wanted to make sure there was continuity of care for women in Western North Carolina,” says Melissa Reed, Vice President for Public Affairs of Planned Parenthood Raleigh.
Reed says Planned Parenthood has purchased land, received all the necessary permits and hopes to get construction going quickly on a new center in Asheville.
Femcare volunteers also told ABC that pro-life protestors are often in front of their clinic, but that they are never worried, because a fence separates the privately owned parking lot from the public sidewalks.
