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Planned Parenthood Forced to Close Center in Indiana

by VOA News

   Planned Parenthood says years of intimidation and harassment by
   anti-abortion groups is forcing it to close its center in Fort Wayne,
   Indiana.

   Christie Gillespie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana
   and Kentucky, said the harassment included a lot more than the usual
   picketing and protests outside the clinic.

   She said pro-life activists had sent mailers to several Fort Wayne
   neighborhoods that included the name, photograph and home address of a
   Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner, with the message, "There are
   killers among us.''

   She said the center was targeted even though it didn't perform abortion
   procedures at the site but instead provided birth control options,
   sexually transmitted disease testing, and early diagnosis of cervical,
   testicular and breast cancer.

   The nurse identified on the mailers also received a letter from the
   pro-life group, Created Equal of Ohio, which told her it had "launched
   a campaign to expose the role you'' play in enabling abortions.

   The letter promised the campaign would stop if the nurse quit her job
   at the center.

   "We've had providers that have been told that their life would be
   unlivable in Fort Wayne if they worked for us,'' Gillespie said. "This
   is not how decent and compassionate people behave.''