Staff Writer
Planned Parenthood of Augusta has reduced its hours from nearly 40 a week to 19.
Zach Boyden-Holmes/Staff
The Alleluia Christian Community leads a vigil outside the Broad Street home of Planned Parenthood, which has reduced its office hours.
The organization said the change was made in response to a down economy, but abortion opponents are celebrating the cutback, which follows a 40-day vigil outside the clinic.
"Women have been changing their consumption of health care because of the economy," said Leola Reis, the vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Georgia. "We're seeing a lot of women giving up preventive care. Their priorities are keeping the bills paid, putting food on the table, and their kids' health before their own."
She said preventive care is the mainstay of Planned Parenthood's business. Screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer account for 48 percent of its business, while contraceptives accounted for 36 percent, according to the national nonprofit agency's 2007-2008 annual report. Abortion services totaled 3 percent.
She declined to provide specifics on the number of people served at the clinic so far this year.
The staff was "somewhat" affected in a reorganization of the Augusta office, but Mrs. Reis said she doesn't think anyone was let go.
The cutbacks are surprising, said Teresa Catlett, the clinical nursing director at the Laney Walker Clinic of the Richmond County Health Department.
"If anything, our demand has increased a little more because people are looking for cheaper options," Mrs. Catlett said. "The important thing is that their clients find options. We all want families to be planned. We want to reduce the teen pregnancy rate. We want to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. It doesn't matter so much where they get services as long as they're still getting them. Access is important."
Gary Garner, a Catholic businessman who regularly leads prayer vigils outside Planned Parenthood, wonders whether the change is less a result of the economy and more a sign of how public opinion is shifting.
In May, a Gallup Poll found that 51 percent of Americans called themselves "pro-life," compared with 42 percent "pro-choice." It was the first time the scales tipped in favor of abortion opponents since Gallup started asking the question in 1995.
The Pew Research Center put the gains more modestly in a study in October. In 2007 and 2008, supporters of abortion "clearly outnumbered" opponents. By 2009, Pew reported, the two sides were evenly divided. The center found that support for reducing abortions or making them harder to obtain was evident among most demographic and political groups.
"There is a shift happening in this country. There's an awakening going on," said Mr. Garner, who runs Images of the Cross, a studio and gallery on Lumpkin Road. "There's an old Christian saying that at times, Satan overplays his hand. I think that's what's going on now. What we're seeing is a backlash of conservative people who say enough is enough."
Though the clinic remains open for business, Mr. Garner calls the reduction in hours "fairly significant."
"What they do, it's an abomination of the highest order. They've been in that little brick building for 30, 31 years," he said. "We would love to see them shut the whole thing down."
His group prays outside the Broad Street clinic on the first and third Friday evenings of the month and on Wednesday mornings. A few times a year, prayer vigils that include daily prayers are held for weeks on end.
The last 40 Days for Life Vigil, as it's known, ended in November, and about 75 people participated. The next one begins in February, said local organizer John Peduto.
"There have been more and more people going down there. You have 80-year-olds kneeling in prayer for an hour. There was one man there at 3 a.m. every morning," he said. "People are committed to this."
The group holds signs and sings, but "we're not out there with bullhorns. They call us protesters, but we're really (praying)," he said.
He hopes that more prayer will close the clinic.
"At church, I've asked people to come out and help us close out their last 19 hours. Nineteen hours isn't very much for a service-oriented business," Mr. Peduto said.
"It surprised us they cut back to that, but our God is full of surprises. Prayer changes things. It can't help but have an effect."
Reach Kelly Jasper at (706) 823-3552 or kelly.jasper@augustachronicle.com.
NEW HOURS OF OPERATION
Planned Parenthood of Augusta is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, and 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. For more information, call (706) 724-5557.
40 DAYS FOR LIFE
Learn more about the national vigil campaign at 40daysforlife.com.
