A San Francisco area chain of abortion centers is closing after massive financial problems caused the national board of Planned Parenthood to dump it as an affiliate.
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate was dropped as an affiliate of the national abortion business following allegedly massive financial mismanagement. Responding to the decision, the California abortion business changed its name to Golden Gate Community Health and fired CEO Dian Harrison.
Harrison filed a lawsuit for more than $180,000 in severance in December which came as the abortion business was struggling to stay open.
Several employees of Golden Gate Community Health posted on their Facebook accounts earlier this week that the former Planned Parenthood affiliate based in San Francisco will close this week. The Bay Citizen newspaper indicates one former employee says staff members were notified of the impending closure Monday afternoon.
Satellite centers in San Rafael, Oakland, Hayward and San Mateo are expected to close immediately and all remaining abortion appointments will be routed to the main San Francisco center for two more weeks until it will close as well.
In a statement, Golden Gate Community Health CEO Therese Wilson said the closures came because of problems maintaining support from donors, which have split off to the new Planned Parenthood abortion centers and clinics that other affiliates have opened up in the area for the national business.
“After thoroughly researching and examining our options, we made the difficult decision to close our health centers,” Wilson said.
Golden Gate Community Health had been in operating since 1923 and did thousands of abortions annually until, in 2008-2009, it lost more than $2.8 million and lost $536,000 in 2010.
“Over the past eight months, the new management team made significant operational and financial improvements and reduced operating costs by 33 percent, saving more than $600,000 per month,” Wilson said. “During this time we have been able to guarantee the same quality of care for which have been known. However, without expected additional funding we are unable to cover the revenue delays associated with state reimbursement.”
Golden Gate Community Health Board Chair Linda Davis indicated GGCH may work to obtain funding to reopen at some point in the future.
The Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life legal group located in central California, joined San Francisco Bay Area pro-lifers in celebrating the closure of Golden Gate Community Health abortion business.
Before its closure, GGHC operated five abortion clinics in four Bay Area counties, already a considerable decline from its heyday in the ’90’s, when it operated four abortion clinics in San Mateo County alone, the group told LifeNews.com.
“PPGG was not only one of the oldest Planned Parenthood affiliates; it was also one of the most litigious. PPGG instigated frequent litigation against pro-life activists from the ’80’s to as recently as a year ago,” LLDF spokeswoman Catherine Short said. “The affiliate was a party in at least six lawsuits against pro-life activists, as well as the impetus for a seventh suit in federal court. In each case, LLDF represented the pro-life activists whose free speech rights were threatened.”
PPGG was also one of the plaintiffs in challenging the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Short said that even though PPGG, later renamed GGCH after the Planned Parenthood disaffiliation vote, was struggling financially, it contributed over $750,000 to defeat three California ballot initiatives, in 2005, 2006, and 2008, that would have required parental notification before a minor could have an abortion.
“As Congress debates continued funding of Planned Parenthood, it should take note of the organization’s spending priorities,” said LLDF President Dana Cody. “Furthering Planned Parenthood’s political agenda apparently was more important than providing all those ‘critical health services’ that we keep hearing about.”
The problems were so pervasive at GGCH that it faces an audit from the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service. The New York Times released a new report in September detailing how an unnamed former employee interviewed with the Oakland field office of the IRS.
