A Planned Parenthood facility in Dubuque, Iowa, will be closing as soon as the building can be sold. This facility is one of “about a dozen satellite clinics the agency has shuttered in recent years,” reported THOnline.com this week…
Effective immediately, Planned Parenthood will no longer offer services provided by a clinician at the Dubuque health center. However, the organization will continue to provide telemedicine abortion by appointment at the Dubuque location until the building is sold, which could take several months….
In 2014, the agency closed Iowa clinics in Red Oak and Creston, citing “a shifting need for services.” Planned Parenthood, which is Iowa’s largest provider of abortions, also previously closed similar clinics in Ankeny, Fort Dodge, Fort Madison, Knoxville, Newton, Mount Pleasant Storm Lake, Spencer and Washington….
[D]emand for services in Dubuque has remained “remarkably flat” in recent years….
As previously reported by Live Action News, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has had a significant drop in patients – 20 percent – in recent years:
… [T]he group’s annual reports from FY2014 to FY2015 show an overall decline of nearly 12,000 patients (nearly 20 percent) – as well as a 28 percent drop in contraceptive services and a 12 percent drop in STD/STI testing. Pap tests show a 24 percent drop, but perhaps most striking is a whopping 61 percent drop in breast exams from 2014 to 2015.
Via Alliance Defending Freedom
Marian Bourek, executive director of Dubuque County Right to Life, says she is pleased by the closure and “delighted the truth is prevailing and we’re happy to assist in any way we can to provide alternatives to the taking of the lives of innocent babies.”
Planned Parenthood board member Ann Straley, however, was not so pleased with the idea of alternatives to abortion, as it means fewer poor women will be having abortions:
“It means for some people the possibility of a televised abortion would not be available locally – they would have to travel,” Straley said. “For some people, that’s a deal-breaker … Often the people who need that service the most are people who do not have money for transportation for someplace that is 70 or 100 miles away.”…
It’s an issue of the “’haves’ and the ‘have nots,’” Straley said.
“If the ‘haves’ want an abortion, they can get it,” she said.
While Iowa is currently considering a bill that could defund Planned Parenthood in the state, it appears that for now, it is the lack of demand for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s services that is driving the closure of its facilities in certain areas.
