News

Planned Parenthood Secretly Builds 18,000-Square-Foot Abortion 'Mega-Clinic'

By A. J. Sciascia October 3, 2019 at 8:38am

Planned Parenthood on Wednesday announced the opening of its newest abortion mega-clinic in Fairview Heights, Illinois.

Constructed in secret over the past year, the 18,000-square-foot “health center” sits just 13 miles away from neighboring Missouri’s last surviving abortion clinic, CBS News reported.

The infamous abortion provider has been fighting to keep the lights on at its St. Louis location since earlier this year when state officials began cracking down on health codes and standards.

Planned Parenthood acknowledges the placement of its “state-of-the-art” clinic — one of the largest in the country upon opening — was no accident.

In fact, it was a direct result of the political battle raging over abortion in Missouri and was specifically designed to serve as a “regional haven for abortion access,” according to a company news release.

“The new location will replace the organization’s current Fairview Heights health center, and increases access to abortion by offering both medication and surgical abortion,” Planned Parenthood wrote.

FIRST ON CBS NEWS: Planned Parenthood has been secretly building an 18,000-square-foot mega clinic on the Illinois-Missouri border, the frontlines of the country’s battle over abortion https://t.co/fhMkpJLiGK pic.twitter.com/batHlJEqhg

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 2, 2019

Construction on the Fairview Heights mega-clinic began in August 2018.

Planned Parenthood did not publicly announce its ownership of the site until Wednesday, however, running funding and construction through a “shell company” in order to keep the local public in the dark as to what the massive building’s purpose would be.

Do you think it's right that Planned Parenthood was allowed to built its mega-clinic without contractors and residents being aware of it?

Public knowledge would have opened the door to the possibility of protest and delay, Colleen McNicholas, Planned Parenthood chief medical officer for the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, told CBS News.

Local businesses with moral reservations about helping to build an abortion mega-clinic in their backyard apparently had become too much of a threat to Planned Parenthood during previous developments.

Cabinet makers and communications companies had refused to deliver on orders placed by the company in other parts of the country. Small businesses providing support to the abortion giant’s recent construction efforts in Birmingham, Alabama, had been met with a steady stream of bad reviews and boycotts when locals found out.

The “writing was on the wall” for a challenging, drawn-out construction process, McNicholas told CBS News.

But Planned Parenthood was in a rush to get back to work in the region, and a bit of targeted, shady business would need to be done to meet that end.

“We were really intentional and thoughtful about making sure that we were able to complete this project as expeditiously as possible because we saw the writing on the wall,” McNicholas said.

“Patients need better access, so we wanted to get it open as quickly as we could,” she added.

Submit a Correction →