Abortion provider closes Peninsula office
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate closed its Redwood City clinic in July, leaving just one remaining clinic in San Mateo County. The closure came a month before an announcement by Planned Parenthood Federation of America Aug. 6 that it was severing ties with the Bay Area franchise -- Planned Parenthood Golden Gate.
“They were not meeting our standards for administrative and fiscal management,” Karen Ruffato, vice president of affiliate services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told The Bay Citizen in a story published online Aug. 6.
Calls by Catholic San Francisco to the local chapter and to the national organization were not returned by deadline. The Bay Citizen reported that the Golden Gate organization planned to continue operating its seven centers in Alameda, San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo and Sonoma counties. At the same time, the newspaper reported that Planned Parenthood affiliates in San Jose and Shasta were expected to expand operations into the Bay Area.
The closure of the Redwood City clinic on July 3 came as a surprise to pro-life advocates who had been praying outside the abortion clinic for about five years. They were unsure if the closure was due to declining demand for abortion or just a cost-saving consolidation. Prospective clients for the Redwood City clinic were referred to the remaining clinic in San Mateo County in the city of San Mateo on Palm Avenue.
Church of the Nativity parishioners, Deacon Dominick Peloso and his wife Mary Ellen, a nurse, were among a group of five to eight parishioners from Nativity and Our Lady of Carmel parishes who prayed the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy one Saturday a month outside the 1230 Hopkins Avenue site in Redwood City. “We don’t know when they did abortion,” Peloso said. “We just knew that we could make it once a month on a Saturday and so that is the day that we picked to pray. We were there as a presence.”
While 40 Days for Life vigils conducted around the country over the past few years have resulted in abortion clinics closing, no 40 Days vigil was conducted at the Redwood City site.
Those praying outside the San Mateo Planned Parenthood clinic are seeing an uptick in activity there since the July 3 Redwood City clinic closure, said Sandra Dillon, parishioner of Our Lady of Angels. Saturdays, when abortions are usually performed, are busy and there appears to be more traffic during the week, Dillon said.
In an interview published in the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate interim CEO Therese Wilson said, “We [closed the Redwood City office] for staffing efficiencies and to reduce our expenses in terms of utilities.” Planned Parenthood Golden Gate referred the 600 patients it said used the Redwood City site to clinics in San Francisco and San Mateo, Wilson said.
By Valerie Schmalz
CSF August 11th, 2010
