Planned Parenthood location in Wilkes-Barre now offering chemical abortions, and applies for webcam (telemed) abortions.
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in Pennsylvania, is continuing to expand their market share on abortion.
The Wilkes-Barre Planned Parenthood is now performing chemical abortions on women up to 10 weeks in pregnancy. This makes eleven Planned Parenthood locations in Pennsylvania that perform abortions.
This location has been in the news before regarding adding abortion services. In 2018, their lease was not renewed after the owner was informed of their interest in expanding to abortion services.
Planned Parenthood moved to a building owned by a local businessman, whom at the time of their relocation indicated that Planned Parenthood would not perform surgical abortions but made no mention of the prospect of chemical abortions. “Although I believe that the decision to end a pregnancy must be left to a woman, her family and her faith, I can share that surgical abortion will not be offered at this site,” said the owner.
Wilkes-Barre Planned Parenthood charges $500 for each chemical abortion, higher than some of the other Planned Parenthood locations in the state. In Pittsburgh, it costs $435 for the same abortion procedure.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in the state, responsible for half of the 30,000 abortions performed in the state every year.
This expansion of abortion services underscores their priority is profit from abortion. Planned Parenthood has closed sixteen locations in Pennsylvania since 2010. Only one of those locations profited from abortions performed on-site. The lone abortion services location to close, their Easton location in 2017, performed the least amount abortions out of any Planned Parenthood location in PA.
It’s worth noting that of the other ten Pennsylvania locations performing abortion services for Planned Parenthood, six failed a state health inspection in 2019.
Abortion by Video? Yes – unless the PA Senate takes action
In their first state inspection in January 2020, the Wilkes-Barre Planned Parenthood also indicated that they will include “Tele Medication Abortion administration.”
Telemedication abortions put more women at risk. These abortions by video – or webcam abortions – increase the chances of error in calculating the duration of the pregnancy by not performing an in-person evaluation. It also endangers women with ectopic pregnancies by delaying this diagnosis that can lead to dangerous and perhaps even fatal results.
Sadly, this is not the only location to inform the state that they are adding this dangerous abortion service. The PA Department of Health has also been informed by Planned Parenthood locations in Philadelphia, West Chester and York that they will be adding telemedication abortions.
Take Action: Tell your State Senator to stop abortions by video in Pennsylvania: pafamily.org/notelemedabortions
Prenatal Care? No
The Associated Press reported back in 2018 that the Wilkes-Barre Planned Parenthood offers prenatal care. There is not one location in Pennsylvania where Planned Parenthood offers such services.
Politicians like Governor Tom Wolf, a former clinic escort for Planned Parenthood, have repeated this false claim, who tweeted that Planned Parenthood offers “reproductive and prenatal health.” This false claim circulated in part because all Planned Parenthood locations in PA had previously listed “prenatal” as a service on their online booking website until PA Family Institute called them out. After calling each location, it was determined that not one location offered prenatal care. After exposing this truth, Planned Parenthood removed the “prenatal” listing from their website.
