Planned Parenthood Expands Abortion Services in Iowa

Our colleagues at Iowa Right to Life are smack dab in the center of significant Planned Parenthood and abortion activity.

1. First, Iowa became the testing ground for telemed abortions done by med-cam with plans to spread this insidious abortion procedure throughout the country. Exposed in Iowa newspapers, this procedure is now under investigation for possible violation of Iowa law.

2. Then, notorious late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart announced he would move his late-term practice to Council Bluffs, Iowa to avoid Nebraska’s new law which prohibits abortions after 20 weeks because the baby is capable of feeling pain. The Council Bluffs City Council unanimously voted down Carhart’s request for land. Iowa legislators are working on a law similar to Nebraska’s to keep Carhart out of Iowa.

3. Now, Planned Parenthood has announced a big merger which will give the newly merged affiliate 25 clinics in Nebraska and much of Iowa. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (the group that developed and tested telemed web-cam abortions) is swallowing up Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa (PPECI). Here’s the pattern. The larger affiliate, PP of the Heartland, does abortions and it acquires the smaller affiliate, PPECI, which was not doing abortions. When asked if PPECI would begin doing abortions, the response was vague. Officials said that “abortions and offering RU-486 by telemedicine are among services being evaluated.” PP of the Heartland merged with Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs in 2009 and just opened up a new abortion clinic in Omaha.

These are activities to be closely monitored as it appears to be the PP pattern in many areas of the country. How soon will this begin happening in Wisconsin?

Barbara Lyons