Editor's note. I am on vacation. The remainder of the TN&Vs for this week were composed ahead of time. I will be back in the swing of things on Monday.

Regular readers of NRL News have noted our coverage of the latest trend at Planned Parenthood, establishing abortion megaclinics all across the country. Now a mainstream reporter has picked up on the story and uncovered a few new important details about Planned Parenthood's business and political plans.

Writing in the June 23 Wall Street Journal, Stephanie Simon reports that "Flush with cash, Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide are aggressively expanding their reach, seeking to woo more affluent patients with a network of suburban clinics and huge new health centers that project a decidedly upscale image."

Planned Parenthood has undergone some major corporate restructuring in the last several years, closing unprofitable clinics, merging affiliates, and building megaclinics capable of performing hundreds of abortions a week. Statistics show Planned Parenthood clinics are now responsible for about 24% of all abortions performed in the U.S., setting record numbers (289,750 in 2005) while abortion has declined across the nation.

Megaclinics have been or are being built by Planned Parenthood affiliates all over the United States. Simon mentions the mega-clinic that recently opened in Aurora, Illinois, along with a new one in Houston that is supposed to be Planned Parenthood's largest, at 75,000 square feet. These new megaclinics, Simon writes, "feature touches like muted lighting, hardwood floors and airy waiting rooms in colors selected by marketing experts." (Older clinics are also being updated and remodeled to look, as one client put it to Simon, "a lot cleaner and safer.")

In addition to the megaclinics, Simon notes that Planned Parenthood has opened "more than two dozen quick service 'express centers,' many in suburban shopping malls." These clinics offer "walk-in convenience" and "clothes-on care," including birth control, pregnancy tests, and tests for sexually transmitted infections. Simon writes, "Most patients are in and out in less than half an hour." "I like to think of it as the LensCrafters of Family Planning," Steve Trombley of Planned Parenthood's Illinois affiliate told Simon as they toured an express clinic in Schaumburg.

Planned Parenthood's Colorado affiliate went to the "more businesslike approach" three years ago to strengthen its bottom line, Simon reports. As a result, Simon writes, cervical cancer screenings dropped, but abortion, contraception, and testing for STDs all "rose sharply." Income did as well, with revenues of $19 million against patient-care costs of $17 million.

Simon also adds important information about what Planned Parenthood plans to do with the extra square footage in its megaclinics. The new Aurora megaclinic has a huge waiting room, four surgical rooms, and thirteen private recovery rooms. It also has a large call center, room for five operators to handle as many as 15,000 calls a month. Though that may be part of the set-up for call-in abortion appointments, Simon reveals that something more may be involved.

Only about 20% of a new 52,000-square-foot Planned Parenthood center opening in Denver will be devoted to health care, Simon writes. About 40% of that space will be for meetings, "including political work." A 40,000-square-foot facility planned for Portland, Oregon, will include not only a clinic but "space for candidate forums and phone banks," Simon relates. David Greenberg of the Planned Parenthood affiliate building the Portland clinic justified the size and cost of the center by saying, "The building becomes a symbol for our outreach and community activism."

Planned Parenthood's Action Fund recently endorsed pro-abortion Democratic candidate Barack Obama for president and announced plans to spend $10 million on the election. The aim of all this refurbishing and "rebranding" is not simply to make Planned Parenthood a nicer place. It is, as Simon makes clear, part of an effort to generate more business for the nation's largest abortion chain and to make it a more powerful force in the political arena.

That's the real bottom line.

If you have any thoughts on this, please drop me a line at daveandrusko@hotmail.com