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A woman wearing a red hat and with red tape over her mouth with "LIFE" written on it stands in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Houston, Texas.
Photo: Nick de la Torre/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Planned Parenthood facilities continue to close as it shifts toward online business

Icon of a magnifying glassAnalysis·By Cassy Cooke

Planned Parenthood facilities continue to close as it shifts toward online business

As Planned Parenthood shifts toward an online business model, several of its brick-and-mortar facilities are shutting down around the country, including every facility in Louisiana and the nation's largest Planned Parenthood center in Houston, Texas.

Key Takeaways:

  • Every Planned Parenthood facility in Louisiana has closed, along with the abortion chain's mega-facility in Houston, Texas.

  • Louisiana lawmakers have been passing legislation to protect women and preborn children from abortion, including forced abortions and abortion trafficking.

  • The now-closed mega-center in Houston, Texas, was embroiled in controversy for years.

  • Planned Parenthood executives have tried to weaponize the closures by saying they are the result of "political warfare."

  • In reality, the closures are a cost-saving measure for the abortion corporation as it shifts its focus to virtual services, like sending abortion pills through the mail.

The Details:

Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood announced it would close its last two brick-and-mortar abortion facilities in Louisiana by the end of September; that has now been made official, as there are no longer any Planned Parenthood facilities within the state.

The Associated Press reported that the facilities have indeed closed, which Melaney Linton, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, blamed on “relentless political assaults that have made it impossible for us to continue operating sustainably in Louisiana."

As per usual for abortion defenders, this is being framed as a horrific assault on health care, when in reality, Planned Parenthood only serves an estimated 2% of women of reproductive age, and there are other avenues for women to receive care. According to Ryann Martinek of the New Orleans Health Department:

We have the HCH clinic, which is available to residents regardless of insurance or housing status. It provides primary care as well as sexual and reproductive health services. Additionally, I think this is where partnership is really key. We’re part of a larger member network called 504 HealthNet, which is a collective of clinics across greater New Orleans providing sexual and reproductive health care.

... minus abortion, which isn't health care; it's killing.

It was also previously announced that the Houston mega-center would be closing, which according to Texas Right to Life, is now official as well.

The 78,000-square-foot mega-center is closing reportedly due to a restructuring of the abortion corporation, with a greater emphasis on virtual services. Across the country, Planned Parenthood has been closing facilities for years, while expanding telehealth and virtual health services. The Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas website now has two telehealth options: a Virtual Health Center and the PP Direct app.

The Backstory:

The Houston facility has been a hotbed for scandal since its opening; the center sent four women to the hospital in just one month in 2015, for example.

But perhaps most notably, it was the site of a Center for Medical Progress (CMP) video; footage secretly filmed inside the Houston facility showed Melissa Farrell, at that time the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC), referring to the body parts of aborted babies as “line items.” She also insinuated that Planned Parenthood was willing to illegally alter abortion procedures to better procure fetal body parts to sell.

“If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers [bodies], we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this," she said. "It’s all just a matter of line items.”

Farrell was not alone. Also caught was Tram Nguyen, who was the Vice President of Abortion Access with PPGC at the time, overseeing all abortion procedures. Abortionist Ann Schutt-Ainé, who was the Chief Medical Officer, also spoke to undercover investigators about how she and Nguyen altered abortion procedures to avoid violating the federal ban on D&X (partial-birth) abortions. Nguyen admitted that if people knew what she was doing, they would call her “f***ing evil.”

Nguyen was also shown speaking about a set of 17-week conjoined twins, whose bodies were kept “in the freezer, because we were waiting for a funeral home to pick them up…” she said. “They were like the most intact because it was a fetal anomaly, the conjoined twins…. But I was like, ‘But it’s really cool though. There’s like three legs, and like, two spinal cords.'”

Thumbnail for Fetal Trafficking Under Oath - Planned Parenthood's Admissions About Fetal Tissue Research Programs

Planned Parenthood was ultimately terminated from the Texas Medicaid program as a result of this Center for Medical Progress investigation.

The Bottom Line:

While many are celebrating these closures, it is important to note that the closures were planned as a way for Planned Parenthood to stay open for increased virtual (online) business.

Planned Parenthood has been spending millions to fund abortion travel for women, and that is likely to continue, regardless of whether or not it has a physical presence in Houston and Louisiana.

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