Two Ohio Planned Parenthood locations, which did not offer abortions, are closing their doors this month — joining dozens of other Planned Parenthood non-abortion center casualties, amassed over the course of several years. The abortion corporation has been quick to assign the blame for the closures on Ohio’s pro-life measures and on the Trump administration’s new Title X rule requiring a separation between abortion providers’ abortion business and other Title X services. Planned Parenthood chose to leave the Title X program rather than abide by the rule.
What Planned Parenthood isn’t telling the public is that it began voluntarily shuttering many of its non-abortion facilities in 2011 thanks to a plan to consolidate and require every affiliate to offer abortion services. Live Action News has reported on multiple Planned Parenthood closures in the past three to four years — and all of them are centers that did not offer abortions. The answer to this is simple, really: abortion centers bring in more income. They’re more sustainable, financially. Those that don’t offer abortion don’t always remain profitable.
As Live Action News reported in 2016, “American Life League’s STOPP Planned Parenthood International reported at the end of 2015 that 23 Planned Parenthood centers closed just that year. The organization’s non-abortion services have been on the decline. However, we know from the group’s annual reports that Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers have gone up even as the group’s legitimate health services have trended downward.”
But rather than admit to abortion as its cash cow, Planned Parenthood has chosen to blame the usual suspects for its two upcoming closures.
“These closures are the result of years of attacks on our ability to provide reproductive health care,” president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region Kersha Deibel told ABC News. “Ohio politicians have passed 22 anti-reproductive health measures in recent years, including a defunding bill that went into effect earlier this year. Then came the changes to the Title X program, from an administration that has made it clear that it wants to force out trusted health centers that provide evidence-based, comprehensive reproductive health care.”
Planned Parenthood currently has seven locations in the greater Cincinnati area, where the Springdale and Western Hills neighborhood locations are set to close on September 20. These two non-abortion center closures will leave five Planned Parenthood locations in the greater Cincinnati and Miami Valley regions.
READ: 5 facts the media isn’t telling you about Planned Parenthood’s potential funding cut
Despite this, Deibel added, according to National Review:
These layered attacks in a hostile environment forced us to make some really tough decisions. This is the world they want to see: one where women lose access to birth control, where information about how to access abortion is held hostage, and where, if you don’t have money, it’s almost impossible to access an STI test or a cancer screening.
First, we’ve already established that Planned Parenthood’s voluntary closure of dozens of its own non-abortion facilities wasn’t “forced” by anyone except its own business model. Second, no one’s losing access to birth control, because the abortion giant is most certainly not the only provider of Title X family planning services — in fact, 68% of patients are getting their contraception somewhere other than Planned Parenthood. Here’s more information showing how the nation’s number one abortion provider paints itself as the main provider of Title X services (with the help of the hand-wringing media), while it isn’t (see more details on these here):
- 87% of Title X family planning services providers are NOT Planned Parenthood facilities
- 59% of patients getting Title X services are NOT getting them from Planned Parenthood.
- Planned Parenthood’s Title X qualified services have DROPPED 60% over eight years.
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) outnumber Planned Parenthood centers 20 to 1.
- Under the Trump administration, Title X is still fully funded at $400M — an increase in funding.
Third, no one’s holding information about how to access abortion hostage. Anyone with access to a computer or smart phone — or even a standard phone book — can find an abortion facility. Finally, STI testing and cancer screenings can be obtained at the many, many Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Centers. For women seeking low cost and even free health care, GetYourCare.org shows multiple Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) locations in the Cincinnati area alone.
Screenshot from GetYourCare.org showing FQHCs in the Cincinnati area
As stated above, no funding has been cut from Title X — the funding refused by Planned Parenthood will simply be redirected to other qualified Title X recipients.
After the two Ohio facilities close, Planned Parenthood will still have 26 locations in the state.
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