Clinic's groundbreaking draws crowd of protesters

Clinic's groundbreaking draws crowd of protesters
Planned Parenthood broke ground Wednesday on a new regional headquarters in northeast Portland, and more than 150 protesters turned out with signs, upset that the agency offers abortion services.

"But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out." Numbers 32:23

http://www.katu.com/news/32630304.html?video=YHI&t=a

By Brian Barker KATU News and KATU.com Web Staff
Video
PORTLAND, Ore. – Planned Parenthood broke ground Wednesday on a new regional headquarters in northeast Portland, and more than 150 protesters turned out with signs to crash the party.
Protesters say the new 40,000 square foot building, to be constructed near the intersection of Northeast Beech Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, should not be built because it will offer abortion services.
They came from a group of religious organizations around the Portland area.
Organizers of the protest gathered hundreds of signatures to try to get the Portland Development Commission to deny the application to build on the site, which is on a piece of city-owned property.
Protesters said bringing abortion services to the neighborhood is a way of targeting the poor and African Americans. It also promotes a promiscuous lifestyle among young people, they said.
"We do not want Planned Parenthood building a facility where they are going to kill unborn babies in this town because … those babies are all innocent human beings," said protester Christina Degoede. "That's not acceptable for us."
But Planned Parenthood officials say they are building there to help all people who need preventative health care services.
"Abortion is a really small percentage of what we do, less than 5 percent," said Liz Delapoer of Planned Parenthood. "Ninety-five percent of our services focus on preventative health care."
Planned Parenthood officials said they help 60,000 people a year in the northwest.
The new facility would be one of the biggest in the United States.
Planned Parenthood officials have said in the past that the organization supplies the so-called abortion pill to about 17 people per month in its current clinic in northeast Portland.
The new clinic is expected to open in early 2010.
And protesters say they will return to the site frequently.

"But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out." Numbers 32:23