Planned Parenthood to shut down three Texas clinics

On the same day Gov. Rick Perry signed into law some of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, Planned Parenthood announced it would close three clinics in southeast Texas.

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast announced the facilities, located in Bryan, Huntsville and Lufkin, will be closing at the end of August. Each of them provided health and family planning services including cancer screenings and pregnancy, HIV and STD testing. Only the facility in Bryan performed abortions.

“Deplorably, the combined impact of years of budget cuts to women’s health care services and the dismantling of the successful Women’s Health Program will take affordable, preventive health care options away from women in Bryan, Lufkin and Huntsville — just as these policies have taken health care away from an estimated 130,000 others — when Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast is forced to close these family planning health centers at the end of August,” said Melaney A. Linton, president of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, in a statement.

Hours before the announcement, Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a package of strict abortion measures that include banning abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, requiring abortion clinics meet ambulatory surgical standards and requiring doctors who perform pill-induced or surgical abortions have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

More at http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2013/07/planned-parenthood-to-shut-down-three-texas-clinics/?cmpid=hpts .