Planned Parenthood closes two Iowa clinics

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2014/06/04/planned-parenthood-closes-clinics-in-creston-red-oak/9978693/
Planned Parenthood closes two Iowa clinics
Tony Leys
June 4, 2014

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland is closing two small clinics in southwest Iowa, which will further limit women's options to obtain abortion pills.

The agency uses a first-in-the-nation video-conferencing system to dispense the pills to women in outlying clinics. But women in the Red Oak and Creston areas will have to travel farther to obtain that service or other Planned Parenthood services, such as birth control consultations. The clinics were among at least 11 satellite clinics the agency shuttered in recent years.

The agency said the Red Oak and Creston clinics were only open by appointment, and are being closed because of "a shifting need for services." Patients will be referred to remaining clinics, including seven that provide the telemedicine abortions and two that also provide surgical abortions.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Angie Remington denied that the decision was sparked by abortion opponents' objections to the clinics. "The decision to close the health centers was based on an effort to eliminate inefficiency in resources - shifting the staff and equipment required for certain services from health centers where request for those services was low to areas where our patients are more densely located and availing themselves of our services," Remington wrote in an email to the Register Wednesday....