Friday September 24, 2010
Contrary to Erroneous Reports, New Jersey Abortion Clinics Still Open
By Peter J. Smith
TRENTON, New Jersey, September 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Erroneous reports of closed abortion clinics in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, have threatened to derail the 40 Days for Life effort in that city, with some pro-lifers being led to believe that there is no functioning abortion facility to protest against.
“All kinds of people are calling and asking, ‘should we not go anymore, the clinics are closed,’” Jennifer Racancoj, a Cherry Hill 40 Days for Life leader, told LifeSiteNews.com.
The source of the confusion was a Philadelphia Inquirer story that mistakenly reported that Joyce Kurzweil, the executive vice-president of Planned Parenthood of Southern New Jersey, announced it was shuttering the doors Monday of an abortion facility located on Kings Highway – a closure blamed on the $7.5 million budget cut for family planning made by Gov. Chris Christie.
But that Kings Highway facility, called the Cherry Hill Women’s Center, is not even Planned Parenthood’s affiliate in Cherry Hill, but is a member of the National Abortion Federation – and it has not closed.
LifeSiteNews.com placed a call into the abortion clinic Friday afternoon, and was told by a receptionist that the Inquirer story was incorrect, they had not closed, and were still open for business.
Far from shuttering its doors, the abortion facility recently expanded its daily hours of operation, now from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Racancoj told LSN that according to a former nurse who spoke to them, the Women’s Center performs between 40 – 80 abortions a day.
Bishop Joseph Galante of the Catholic Diocese of Camden is actually expected to join pro-life advocates with 40 Days for Life in prayer at the King’s Highway site.
The clinic that the Philadelphia Inquirer evidently meant to refer to is the Planned Parenthood clinic on Haddonfield Rd, which did not include abortions among its services, but which has in fact closed – as was confirmed by a phone call LifeSiteNews.com made to the facility in question. The clinic said they are now redirecting clients to their affiliates in Camden, Bellmawr, and Edgewater Park for services.
However, the closure of the Haddonfield Planned Parenthood location has not affected the abortion operations of the South Jersey Women’s Center abortion clinic, whose offices are right next door to the closed Planned Parenthood, and which is still committing chemical and surgical abortions up to 14 weeks.
The loss of the pool of $7.5 million in family planning funding, now that Gov. Christie’s veto was sustained in the legislature, is prompting Planned Parenthood to consolidate some offices. But so far its abortion clinics, the most financially lucrative part of its overall operations, still remain in business.
Christie cut $7.5 million to family planning clinics in his $29.4 billion budget, arguing that New Jersey could not afford to pile on more debt. He refused to allow the state pension fund to be raided for clinics like Planned Parenthood, and argued that its services were redundant in light of new federally funded community health centers.
That will be the case in Burlington county. County spokesman Ralph Shrom told WHYY news that the health department’s quarter million dollars allocated for family planning clinics will dry up in November, and individuals needing health care will then be referred to two federally-funded medical clinics.