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Merger Makes Iowa Planned Parenthood
"Web-Cam Abortion" Affiliate Bigger – Again
Part Two of Three By Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D. It has happened again. Another powerfully- aggressive Planned Parenthood affiliate is gobbling up a weaker, smaller affiliate. This time, the location is Iowa, and the bigger affiliate in the merger happens to be the one that has been in the news lately for its remote "Web-cam abortion" program. (For those who haven't followed this unfortunate development, the abortionist is not present with the woman. He communicates by means of a video conferencing system, electronically opening a drawer from which the woman takes out the two drugs that make up the "RU-486" chemical abortion regime: misoprostol and mifepristone.) According to the (Cedar Rapids) Gazette, the merger is scheduled to take place sometime in 2011. It involves Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH), the bigger affiliate centered in Des Moines, and Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa (PPECI), which has clinics in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque. This represents the second merger in the last couple of years for PPH. The newly merged affiliate will have 25 clinics, covering Nebraska and much of Iowa. A smaller Planned Parenthood affiliate continues to operate in southeast Iowa, but there are no plans to merge that with the others at the present time. While the heads of both affiliates said that the merger wasn't for financial reasons, it's hard to miss that the Heartland affiliate, which has garnered fame and one would expect considerable income from its push for tele-chemical abortions, is the one acquiring the smaller affiliate, which was not performing abortions but only referring for abortions. Lesson? The affiliate performing abortions grows bigger, while the one not doing abortions folds. Planned Parenthood often claims that abortion represents only a small proportion of their services (they say about 3% nationally). But PPFA never goes on to say how much income they draw from this extremely lucrative part of their business. At the prices charged for basic first-trimester suction abortions, the 300,000 plus annual abortions performed nationally at Planned Parenthood's clinics would account for about a third of the organization's "health center" income (see factsheets at www.nrlc.org for more details). PP Heartland grows and grows. It first merged with Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs in August 2009 (see Today's New & Views, 7/22/10) and has just opened a new clinic in Omaha. That clinic will be offering abortions (Omaha World Herald, 12/9/10). As recently as May of 2010, a spokesperson for PP East Central Iowa was asserting to a reporter for Dubuque's Telegraph Herald that "PPECI has never been abortion providers in our 30-year history and PPECI has no plans at this time to provide abortion services (5/28/10). The story is different now. In an interview that appeared in the Gazette, Jill June, the CEO of PP of the Heartland, along with Vanessa Solesbee, the chair of PPECI, tap-danced around the question. They would only say that "abortions and offering RU486 by telemedicine are among services being evaluated." Jill June, will stay on to head the new organization. Joe Lock, the CEO of PPECI, has resigned. Solesbee told the Gazette's Cindy Hadish that other staff positions will be evaluated, adding, "I can't guarantee that all staff will retain their jobs, as is true with any merger." Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha |