It started with a Facebook page and an online petition. Next came the meetings, prayers, phone calls to the Chamber of Commerce, and a protest at the clinic's grand opening. Now neighbors are coming home to door hangers warning them about a new provider "preying upon your community," and abortion opponents have maintained a constant presence at the clinic's door.

All of this to stop a clinic that doesn't even offer abortions.

At a time when family planning and sexual health clinics are being stripped of funding, forcing many to close their doors, the opening of a new facility is a rare occurrence. But after the property owner of Centro de Salud in South Minneapolis decided to convert that clinic's building into a technology center, the community worried that the Hispanic community, which represents at least 7 percent of the population in Hennepin County and which has almost doubled since 2000, would be left without easily accessible contraception, family planning, and sexual health services. Minnesota's new Planned Parenthood affiliate in Richfield, which opened at the end of June, was expected to fill that gap, as well as extend services to those who reside farther away, since it can be reached via public transit.

But Pro-Life Action Ministries (PLAM), an abortion opponent known for its efforts to protest the few abortion providers in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, is now taking its same "sidewalk counseling" and public protesting tactics to the area's newest family planning clinic. The group began protesting the affiliate in early June, and though the petitiondidn't come anywhere close to its target of 1,000 signatures, the group moved forward with its efforts. A few weeks later, a prayer rally near the site of the clinic reportedly had 150 people in attendance, and just days before the center's official launch, PLAM urged abortion opponents to condemn the Richfield Chamber of Commerce for "advocating for abortion" by holding an official ribbon cutting for the building. On the day of the opening, approximately 100 protesters gathered for a prayer vigil and demonstration, although the protesters were required to stay at least 100 feet from the clinic doors.

Two weeks after that, anti-abortion activists claim to have hung nearly 14,000 leaflets on doors throughout the neighborhood, urging residents to avoid the new Planned Parenthood, which they say offers "dangerous contraception," "promotes and encourages sex without limits," and is "destroying families." The flyer also encourages those who want "real reproductive health care" to go to First Care Pregnancy Center, a crisis pregnancy center, or Sagrada Familia Services, a Catholic church program, neither of which offers STI treatment or hormonal contraception. In fact, Sagrada Familia Services explicitly forbids any form of contraception, stating, "We believe that sexual expression is a natural, powerful way for two committed persons to share their love for one another. This action does not require medication or barrier devices if it is practiced between persons who are committed to one another in marriage and open to new life."

According to Brian Gibson, executive director of Pro-Life Action Ministries, community response to the anti-Planned Parenthood campaign has been "more positive than negative."

Protester outside the Richfield clinic. Pro-Life Action Ministries

"Several people have requested information on what they can do to aid the effort," Gibson said. "Some have expressed gratitude for undertaking this effort. Virtually no negative responses have come from identifiable members of the Hispanic community."

Not all of the neighbors receiving the literature have been supportive though. PLAM reported receiving angry voicemails and even one threat that the person who delivered this "propaganda" would end up with a broken leg if he or she dropped off any more. And clinic staff said they've seen an outpouring of community support since they opened.

"We have people coming up to us saying, 'I'm really sorry this is happening. We support you,'" said Kristen Bucko, ‎director of clinical operations at Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. "It even leads to donations. We had one lovely older couple come in our doors with flowers for us."

According to Bucko, PLAM's presence outside the clinic has done little to deter patients from seeking out contraception or other reproductive health services.

"We see maybe one or two protesters outside our clinic," Bucko said. "We're really fortunate that our patients feel very confident walking into our building. It also helps that we had security there the first few days when there were more people outside."

But Gibson says that what has occurred so far is just the beginning. "Other plans are certainly in the works," he said, although he declined to give specifics. "The pro-life community in Richfield and surrounding areas are very motivated to continue this effort."

Ribbon cutting at the opening of the Planned Parenthood in Richfield. Planned Parenthood

Contraception has become the best means of planning and preventing pregnancy, as well as dropping the rate of unintended pregnancies that often lead to abortion. But for a small faction of people who see abortion and birth control as synonymous, either because they mistakenly believe contraception causes extremely early abortions or because they believe you should not have sex unless you are willing to get pregnant and give birth, contraception is just another front in the abortion wars. Pointing to statistics about effectiveness of different types of birth control, none of which are 100 percent effective, opponents argue that contraception is too unreliable to prevent pregnancy.

Protesting the family planning clinics, even those that don't offer abortion, isn't completely unheard of. In 2012, a clinic in Wassau, Wisconsin, was the target of the fall 40 Days for Life campaign, a twice yearly event in which at least one anti-abortion activist is supposed to maintain a "prayerful" presence outside an abortion provider for 40 days straight. Clinics in Wisconsin that receive Title X funding for family planning and birth control services cannot offer or even discuss the topic of abortion, yet the picketers justified their actions by saying that the clinic "facilitates sex for kids under 16." Similarly, 40 Days for Life members in Columbia, Missouri, are currently praying in front of the local Planned Parenthood clinic, despite the fact that it doesn't offer pregnancy terminations either, and events by 40 Days members have frequently occurred at Texas family planning clinics.

Richfield isn't even the first family-planning-only Planned Parenthood clinic in the state to be targeted by an abortion opponent. In 2002, two Minnesota Planned Parenthood affiliates were vandalized by a person who shot bullets through the windows of the buildings at night, one in Brainerd and one a few weeks later in Grand Rapids. More recently, occasional reports of protests at the Rochester and Uptown Minneapolis clinics come in, according to the organization, though neither clinic offers abortion services.

However, the multi-tactic, multi-level daily campaign being waged against just one clinic such as PLAM is doing is a new and unusual escalation. Having at least one person in near constant presence, involving the surrounding neighbors, and planning further approaches to pressure a clinic into closing is usually a mechanism used only on clinics that offer abortions, not on those distributing your average pack of pills.

The growing campaign against contraception shocks Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. She says she was prepared for opposition to abortion when she came to Planned Parenthood as CEO 13 years ago, but she didn't expect the same when it came to birth control.

"There is a small sliver of very angry cultural right-wingers in this country who are very much at war with the current place women have been able to establish in our society," Stoesz said. "What it is about at the end of the day is whether women have a right to full and equal autonomy and a place at the table or not. Without access to birth control, without access to women's health, without access to abortion, we don't have that."

Anti-abortion groups that want to extend their efforts to family planning clinics already have a blueprint. American Life League (ALL), an anti-abortion organization, lists an entire game plan that local groups can follow in order to stop a clinic from opening, under their STOPP (Stop Planned Parenthood) arm. They suggest targeting all clinics, regardless of if it offers abortions or not. "Most Planned Parenthood facilities do not perform surgical abortions (all do give out the Pill, Depo-Provera, and Emergency Contraception and, therefore, are providing the means for chemical abortions)," the site says. "If your PP does not do surgical abortions, your pickets should concentrate on chemical abortions (primarily targeting the Pill) and the fact that PP comes between parents and their children."

A number of the steps listed on the STOPP website are identical to those that PLAM have put in place in their quest to stop the Richfield clinic, such as distributing anti-Planned Parenthood literature, starting a petition, and contacting businesses and business leaders. Gibson said that PLAM is not affiliated with ALL, although they are aware of their materials.

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Gibson says PLAM's issue is strictly the clinic's role when it comes to providing abortions — even if it's just via referral — not its promotion of birth control. But its line between birth control and abortion is as muddled as ALL's — PLAM insists that hormonal birth control "can cause early abortions" and claims the two most common forms of emergency contraception, Ella and Plan B, "function most often as abortion-inducing drugs," despite studies showing both statements are incorrect. This same unfounded belief was at the heart of the recent Hobby Lobby case before the Supreme Court, in which corporations were allowed to refuse to cover certain contraceptives in their insurance plans, due to a sincerely held religious belief that the contraceptives caused early abortions.

This blurring of the line between abortion and birth control, combined with a well-funded movement of eager activists, means more extensive family planning clinic activism could spread to more affiliates in the near future.

Still, as long as 99 percent of women have used contraception at some point in their lives, it seems unlikely groups like PLAM will be able to convince the general public to shut down the clinics. In fact, as the Richfield Planned Parenthood has shown, when a patient is looking for birth control, a pamphlet or prayer vigil isn't likely to slow her down. According to Stoesz, the reaction is no different than what she's seen for over a decade.

"When our clinic in Grand Rapids was shot up, I jumped into my car and went tearing up there. There was glass everywhere and police tape and it was just a complete mess," said Stoesz. "There I was talking to the media, talking to the police, and women were showing up for their appointments. They were walking across the broken glass, stepping over the police tape saying, 'Where can I get my birth control?' Women aren't going to be stopped. We're going to keep moving ahead."

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