In its onslaught of attacks against HB2 (the historic pro-life bill that passed the Texas legislature last summer), Planned Parenthood has consistently bemoaned the “lack of access” experienced by women in rural areas of Texas as a direct result of changes incurred by HB2 legislation. For example, provisions banning abortionists from committing abortions without possessing admitting privileges at a nearby hospital have affected border counties where sometimes no hospital will grant the abortionist such privileges.
Beginning on September 1, another provision of the legislation will go into effect requiring abortion mills to meet the safety standards of ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs). There is documented evidence that such provisions are a boon to women’s health and safety because the features of ambulatory surgical centers — like wider hallways — help to ensure that, in the event of a botched abortion, women can be better assisted by paramedic staff. In some cases, like that of Karnamaya Mongar (killed by Kermit Gosnell), these provisions are the difference between life and death.
That these provisions have the potential to hurt Planned Parenthood’s bottom line is no secret; facilities that failed to seek the welfare of women in the past, when they were first constructed with fewer safety provisions than an ASC, will have to find a way to meet the new women’s health standards. Planned Parenthood has chosen to construct an entirely new facility in San Antonio which is in line with the ASC provisions that will come into effect in September. But Planned Parenthood’s choice of San Antonio is telling. If the organization is supposedly so worried about women in rural areas not having access to abortion and so -called “women’s reproductive health services,” why build a brand new, $5 million facility in a densely-populated area that already has an ASC abortion mill? Emily Horne of Texas Right to Life explained the disconnect:
Planned Parenthood always complains that there are only ASCs in five Texas cities–they’ve made such a fuss about there not being one in rural parts of the state like the Rio Grande Valley area. But then they go and build their new clinic in San Antonio, where there’s already an ASC.
The existing ASC abortion mill in San Antonio is not owned by Planned Parenthood, and chances are Planned Parenthood is seeking to compete for business in the more urban San Antonio area where the demand for abortion is likely to be much higher than in one of the sparsely populated rural areas over which Planned Parenthood feigned concern in the past.
