Great News, Planned Parenthood in DBQ Cutting Back Hours They Are Open Drastically

DBQ Co Right to Life has sent out a piece of good news. The DBQ PP site is cutting back their hours. When they opened in August of 2008, the site operated 40 hours a week. They went from 8 hours each day at varying opening & closing times to 9-5 Mon-Fri. As of yesterday they are now open only 3 days a week; Monday 9:00am-1:00pm, Tuesday CLOSED, Wednesday 10:00am-5:00pm, Thursday CLOSED, Friday 12:00-5:00pm. That comes to 16 hours a week. They are now open less then half the time they were when they started.

In March of 2008 Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa opened a part time site in Monticello. They claimed that they did so "following a University of Iowa study that showed Jones County in great need of reproductive healthcare." Then in August of 2008 they opened the DBQ site. Again they claimed the DBQ site was needed. They said they received a "large grant from an anonymous donor" to do so.

A few months ago PPECI said they were closing the Monticello site due to a lack of clients. Their excuse was that the women were opting to drive to the CR or DBQ sites. So much for the study claim.

In August 2009 PPECI said the DBQ site had had 400 clients the 1st year. As I pointed out, that came to to less than 13.5 people a week. Last August they were completely silent about how they were doing. Then in December the news came out they were merging with Planned parenthood of the Heartland (PPH). & recent evidence suggests they were planning on adding telemed abortions to the "services" offered in DBQ.

Apparently they grant money ran out & the cut back in hours is a result of the continued lack of clients. Now they are apparently only open when the majority of the few clients do show up.

While the cut back in hours shows that their claim they were needed in DBQ was false, it doesn't mean that they aren't going to add telemed abortions. PPH's Council Bluffs site is open 20 hrs a week & offers RU486 via the telemed scheme. So DBQ may still be targetted for offering it. Time will tell.

Clearly the DBQ site isn't making a go of it. & that is good news. But it is also bad news in a way. The cut back along with the merger shows that they are desperate for money to operate the DBQ site. Since telemed abortions are a money maker, this makes it even more likely that they will offer them in DBQ in order to ensure the site starts making money. I am hopeful there won't be the huge interest in telemed abortions that they hope for. But even 1 abortion in DBQ will still be 1 too many.

So the cut back in hours is great news, but it is too soon to hope they will be shutting down completely.