Birmingham’s Last Abortion Facility Currently Closed

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jan. 15, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ — Birmingham’s Planned Parenthood, the last remaining abortion facility in the city, is currently closed. But will it remain so?

Local sidewalk counselors report that the facility does not appear to have performed abortions since before Christmas. One counselor confirms that she has only seen a handful of patients show up in the past four weeks, none of which stayed long enough to have an abortion.

But that’s just the start. On December 30th, after the facility was closed for several days, pro-lifers on the sidewalk witnessed the facility’s director being escorted from the building, followed by a repairman changing all of the locks. Three days later, a sign from Planned Parenthood Southeast (PPS) appeared stating that the facility would be closed until January 6th, 2014. After the 6th, sidewalk counselors say the facility did reopen, but only briefly.

As of Tuesday, PPS posted yet another sign, now reading: “We apologize for the inconvenience, but this facility is temporarily closed.” The PPS website also removed the facility’s hours of operation schedule, as well as adding a note that reads: “Services at our Birmingham health center are temporarily slowed.”

Fr. Terry Gensemer, Director of CEC For Life, hopes the closure will be permanent. He comments, “This Planned Parenthood should have been closed long before today. It already has a lawsuit pending from a woman left infertile after the abortionist ignored her ectopic pregnancy and performed an abortion on her empty womb. Before that, the facility was caught in a round of scandal for allegedly covering up cases of statutory rape. For the sake of everyone this facility continues to harm, we are praying it remains closed.”

If the facility does remain closed, Birmingham will be the largest metropolitan area in the country free of abortion clinics — a prayer that many in the city have waited decades to see answered.

Ed Carrick, Director of Birmingham 40 Days for Life, comments, “We’ve done numerous prayer campaigns outside of this facility. The goal of any 40 Days campaign is to arrive at the start date and have no abortion facility at which to hold your campaign. A final shutdown would not only be an answer to many years of dedicated prayer, it would be a miracle for the city. We give God the glory for every day Birmingham remains free of these clinics.”

CEC For Life is a ministry of the Charismatic Episcopal Church.