Planned Parenthood celebrates clinic opening

ASHEVILLE – Holding back tears, longtime supporter Bonnie Smith said it has taken eight years of grit and fortitude to build the Planned Parenthood Asheville Health Center. Supporters had to overcome a recession, an increasingly conservative legislature, a merger and leadership changes.

Building plans had to be drawn and redrawn to meet shifting patient safety and privacy regulations. Money had to be raised. Protesters refused to go away. Yet, the doors to the $2.9 million facility opened in January, nonetheless, and the nonprofit clinic started performing abortions last month.

The opening "is reason to celebrate," Smith said to a crowd of about 80 who had gathered at a private grand opening ceremony for the health center Tuesday evening.

Dreams of a new facility started in 2007 when the nonprofit launched a capital campaign for a new space. Previously, Planned Parenthood was operating a small clinic on Biltmore Avenue. Abortions were not provided at that facility.

Planned Parenthood bought the 5,860-square-foot building in April 2013, just over a year before the region's only abortion clinic, Femcare, closed. Its closure forced Western North Carolina women wanting clinic-based abortion care to travel either 125 miles to Charlotte or 60 miles to Greenville, South Carolina.

Sixty percent of the $2.9 million facility was funded by local donors.

"We really saw a need for abortion services and felt like that was a mission-driven responsibility for us to provide that service in the community," said Jenny Black, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the nonprofit affiliate overseeing clinics in four Southern states, including North Carolina.

"We are happy that the health center was built to handle the demands of patients across Western North Carolina who now won't have to drive exceedingly long distances to access care on top of all the other hoops they have to go through for access to service," she said.

In addition to abortion care, Planned Parenthood Asheville offers sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, HIV/AIDS testing, family planning services, emergency contraception, cancer screenings, annual gynecological exams and transgender health services. It provides care on a sliding scale for people without insurance.

There was a 16 percent growth in patient visits leading up to the decision to open a larger facility, said Alison Kiser, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. Since the Asheville clinic opened its doors in January, appointments have been booked for weeks in advance, she said. Planned Parenthood Asheville also accepts walk-in patients.

"We made good on our promise to the women of Western North Carolina," Jill Dinwiddie, chair of the board of directors at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said to the room of supporters. "Our doors are open and will remain open because of you."

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, came to Asheville specifically for the opening. Planned Parenthood operates some 700 health centers across the country.

"It's really exciting to move into the kind of center everyone should be able to go to for health care," Richards said. "At Planned Parenthood, we provide care no matter what. North Carolina is a good illustration of that."

The pause to celebrate was a rare move for the nonprofit which spent the last month fighting tightened abortion regulations in the General Assembly.

In April, the House swiftly approved House Bill 465, which requires a woman to wait 72-hours after talking to her heath care provider to have an abortion. It also increases reporting regulations on doctors, including requiring medical professionals to send an ultrasound image to the state. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Anti-abortion groups say the regulations are needed to make clinics safer and to force women to take more time to contemplate major decisions. "When her pressures are so great, why wouldn't we want a woman to have more time to think about letting her baby live?" said local anti-abortion activist Meredith Hunt, who protested weekly at the Planned Parenthood Asheville site throughout construction. "The decision to abort is so final."

Abortion rights groups say legislators are trying to deny women a choice. Extended waiting periods, for example, shame women and result in more transportation, lodging and child care costs.

Just last week, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic joined other abortion rights advocates in Asheville as they rallied in Pack Square Park to call on the governor to veto the pending legislation. The stop was part of a multicity tour throughout North Carolina.

"Anytime you are serving a rural area, you have to think about the needs of patients who have to drive long distances, take days off work and navigate an increasingly complicated bureaucracy in order to access services," said Black. "It really feels important to be as convenient as possible for patients accessing care. Our job is to remove barriers."