Thursday, December 9, 2010

Prolifers pack city council meeting to speak out against new Planned Parenthood in Michigan

In the Detroit News, pro-choice columnist Laura Berman writes about an Auburn Hills City Council meeting which was packed with prolifers who are opposed to Planned Parenthood's plan to come to Auburn Hills.
More than 200 crammed the Auburn Hills City Council chambers on Monday. Some were there to protest changes in trash pickup. But it was another debate about choice that drew most.

Residents, and some interlopers, had learned that Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan recently bought a 17,000-square-foot Auburn Hills building and intends to open a family planning clinic....

To date, Planned Parenthood hasn't confirmed that abortions will be performed at the facility, although the Ann Arbor-based group does perform abortions at some of its clinics. ...

The state plans to give more than $200,000 next year to the Auburn Hills clinic, because it would be in an area of high unmet needs for women's and men's reproductive services.

Anti-abortion groups in Oakland County are ramping up opposition to the clinic, citing concerns about violence, crime and sidewalk pickets.

"We may not be able to prevent the clinic from opening," Kiessling says. "But there's definitely going to be protesters; there will be sidewalk counselors."


FULL STORY