Continuing to follow a years-long established pattern, another Planned Parenthood facility — one which referred rather than committed abortions — has closed. As pro-life group Operation Rescue notes, this marks “one of nearly 20 closures of Planned Parenthood offices nationwide and continues the organization’s trend of downsizing facilities that either do not offer abortions or are not turning a profit.”
The Planned Parenthood in Dickinson, Texas, part of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, had a sign posted on its door last week, noting its closure and referring patients to the “mega-center” Planned Parenthood facility in Houston, located at 4600 Gulf Freeway.
As previously noted by Live Action News, Planned Parenthood has been consolidating and closing facilities for years, “since in 2011, Planned Parenthood announced that by 2013, it would require every affiliate to offer abortions… and this has since come to pass.” However, Planned Parenthood isn’t losing money. The organization is referring patients to facilities which offer medication abortions (abortion pill), and to larger, more profitable abortion centers, like the Houston “abortion mega-center,” pictured below.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston
This particular abortion center, to which patients of the Dickinson facility are being referred, is an ambulatory surgical center which was featured in one of the Center for Medical Progress’s undercover investigations. As Live Action News’ Susan Michelle-Hanson reported previously, the video shows “…the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, reveal[ing] the way Planned Parenthood is willing to alter the abortion procedures on women so that buyers can obtain the ‘right specimens’ such as ‘intact fetal cadavers.'” After a year-long investigation, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast was referred for criminal prosecution by a Congressional panel for its role in fetal body parts trafficking.
Consolidating abortion centers can put women at great risk. Operation Rescue noted last year that the “mega-center” trend leads to “an increased risk of complications, especially at the busy clinics that run women through the abortion process like cattle in order to maximize profits.”
The state of Texas has made great strides in making sure women have access to health care through its Healthy Texas Women program, proving women do not need to seek care from a corrupt and unsafe organization like Planned Parenthood.
