Mega-Centers: Retail Abortion Cash Grab Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of Pro-Life Action League In the mid-2000s, Planned Parenthood (PP) began an aggressive expansion strategy centered around the construction of large, modern abortion facilities across the United States starting in Aurora, Illinois.1 Nearly 30 of these “mega-centers” are now open from Oregon to Florida with more under construction or in the planning stages.2 Pro-life activists speculate that this program was launched in anticipation of new healthcare laws friendly to PP’s mission of promoting abortion, contraception and their skewed vision of sexual health. Indeed, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Obamacare) has proven to be a great boon to PP.3 Should future legislation expand taxpayer funding for abortion, these complexes will be there to capitalize on it even more. The mega-centers also serve PP’s effort to create a more positive public image—to become “the Lenscrafters of family planning”4 as one PP official put it. The small, run-down PP clinics in blighted neighborhoods are being replaced with these new “state of the art” facilities, which are often in upscale areas.5 However, PP’s designs have been undermined by the strategy of deception they have adopted in constructing the new mega-centers. They’ve created front-companies to buy property and acquire building permits and have lied to both contractors and local officials about the intended use of these buildings.6
10 The Truth About Planned Parenthood
The public outcry that manifests after these deceptive plans come to light has aided pro-life resistance to these mega-centers and, in some cases, lead to fraud investigations and civil lawsuits.7 Though pro-lifers have only rarely stopped a mega-center from opening, several have been significantly delayed and many new pro-life advocates have been recruited thanks to the controversy.8 The mega-centers are imposing structures, typically featuring bullet-proof glass, narrow windows and banks of video cameras— “abortion fortresses” of sorts.9 PP claims these features are needed for security, but their real purpose is two-fold: to appeal to major donors and to intimidate pro-life activists. PP officials admit the mega-centers are designed to scuttle pro-life activity, especially sidewalk counseling, with entrances set back from the public sidewalk and dense landscaping making it hard for sidewalk counselors to speak to their clients.10 Pro-life activists have risen to this formidable challenge by increasing their numbers outside the mega-centers, creatively using signage to reach clients and aggressively defending their rights in court. Thanks to these tireless efforts, unborn babies—and their mothers—are still being saved at the Planned Parenthood megacenters.11, 12
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