Local

Planned Parenthood will expand services with new

center

Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News

Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of South Texas, (left) and Pat Smothers, Capital Campaign

Chair, tour the new Planned Parenthood building that is under construction Saturday Oct. 11, 2014.

By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje

October 11, 2014 | Updated: October 11, 2014 11:26pm

heart of the Medical Center, its two stories are in the

midst of a major renovation made possible by

donations that poured in from across the nation, one

Planned Parenthood board member said.

Not only will the $6.5 million project allow the local

affiliate to continue performing abortions under the

new law, it will enable the nonprofit to expand the

volume and type of services it can provide to include

an array of gynecological care, such as day surgeries

for uterine polyps and tubal ligations.

requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital — also unnecessary, critics said.

The federal appeals court has ruled the regulations could take effect, even as abortion rights advocates and

the state continue to battle in court.

As a result, all but eight of 41 abortion clinics in Texas have closed.

All of which makes the new ambulatory surgical center, or ASC, in San Antonio critically important,

Hons said. With the enactment of HB 2, not a single abortion provider operates to the south and west of

San Antonio, leaving tens of thousands of women with less access to the procedure.

Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News

Since Sept. 1, when the regulations took effect, Planned Parenthood has leased space at a local surgical

“They said there would never be enough money to possibly comply with this law, that it wasn't worth it to

comply with the highest safety standards,” said legislative associate Emily Horne. “And what's most

glaringly inconsistent is that they said HB 2 would disrupt services to rural women, because it was going

to close rural clinics. But when (Planned Parenthood South Texas) chose to open a new clinic, they did so

in a city that already had a surgical center. That tells me this is about concern for market share, not rural

women.”

years. And now we will be able to expand on those services,” he said.

He estimated the new center will perform about 2,800 abortions a year — an increase of 1,000 over the

number provided two years ago, before HB 2.

Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News

conducted a one-person tour of the surgical center. “Now we're ready to grow.”

The surgical center will take up only about a fourth of the building, with most of the remainder used for

family planning and sexual health clients, who can also receive primary care, such as diabetes treatment

When the center opens, Planned Parenthood will have five locations in San Antonio, but only the new one

will provide abortions, both surgical and those involving the abortion pill, as well as other operations.

“What's exciting is that we won't have to refer out women who need evaluation and treatment for things

like uterine bleeding, polyps, fibroids and biopsies,” Hons said. “We can do it ourselves.”

Planned Parenthood affiliates in Houston, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth either already had a surgical

center or undertook plans to create one, Hons said.

But anti-abortion advocates who argue that the presence of surgical centers in major urban areas means

the new law won't present an “undue burden” on women trying to access care are wrong, he said.

“That doesn't make this law OK,” Hons said. “You look at all the space between here and Eagle Pass and

Cotulla and Harlingen and Sonora, and you feel very, very far away from San Antonio.”

At the Planned Parenthood clinic at 104 Babcock, where abortions have been performed, the procedure

was limited to women in their first trimester of pregnancy — when the vast majority of abortions are done.

“We had been in our other home for almost 40 years and had outgrown it,” he said. “We needed a new

Pat Smothers, chairwoman of the capital campaign that built the surgical center, said Planned Parenthood

raised almost all of the $6.5 million — they're still around $1 million shy of the goal — within one year.

“We had donations coming in as large as $1 million, as small as $500, from Democrats and from

Republicans,” she said. “What's happening here in Texas is being followed by people around the nation. A

whole new group of people are horrified about what's happening to women's rights.”

Just as abortion restrictions have in the past, the new law targets and will disproportionally affect poor

women, especially those in rural areas, Smothers said.

“Many of these women are struggling to raise the children they already have,” she said. “They work

minimum-wage jobs that don't afford much leave. They have to pull their children out of school or

perhaps leave them with someone who may not be the best caregiver.”

Reports have already surfaced of women in the Rio Grande Valley and other rural areas traveling to

obtain illegal abortions in Mexico, she said. So have anecdotal reports of women trying to self-induce

abortions with dangerous drugs or other methods.

“We are going backwards into a dangerous time for women,” Smothers said.