Planned Parenthood to close Lynchburg branch

Planned Parenthood will close its Lynchburg health center June 30 for financial reasons, the organization announced Tuesday.

“The Lynchburg site has never been one that had a large financial margin,” said David Nova, a Planned Parenthood vice president in Roanoke.

“This cost-cutting measure is one of many that Planned Parenthood is facing due to the weakened economy and its effects on our operating budget,” Nova said.

Although the center’s preventive health care services will leave Lynchburg, other organizations stand ready to treat the patients, they said Tuesday.

Three public care-providing groups and three faith-based organizations offer health services to women, men and teens in the Lynchburg area. Private-practice physicians also are available.

The Rev. Jonathan Falwell of Thomas Road Baptist Church said the closing “perhaps is a picture that the message we share, that life is important and there is a better way than abortion, means there is a better way than Planned Parenthood.”

“Maybe this is a picture that our message is truly resonating and making a difference, and for that I am happy,” Falwell said.

Public care for women is available from the health department in Lynchburg and nearby counties, from the Johnson Health Center in downtown Lynchburg and the Free Clinic of Central Virginia, also in the downtown area.

Falwell listed additional sources.

“We have got in town the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, the Bedford Pregnancy Center and the Liberty Godparent Home. They provide preventive care, health care and all the information that can help young ladies who find themselves in trouble,” Falwell said.

The decision to close Planned Parenthood’s health center in Lynchburg was made in the headquarters of its four-state region, which reaches from West Virginia to Charleston, S.C., Nova said.

Lynchburg patients can visit the Planned Parenthood centers in Charlottesville and Roanoke, Nova said, and the organization will provide birth-control medications by mail to patients who already have prescriptions.

The organization will continue its education programs and public policy work in Lynchburg, Nova said.

In addition, its local supporters still plan to hold Planned Parenthood’s second annual Community Cards Poker Night fundraiser on May 2, he said.

Although the Lynchburg center never ranked high in the fees paid by patients and financial contributions from the community, it was known within Planned Parenthood for another reason.

Shortly after the Hill City office was opened 11 years ago, “Lynchburg was considered to have the greatest intensity of protesters” in the nation among facilities that did not provide abortion services, Nova said.

The protests dropped off in recent years, Nova said, although pro-life activists who videotaped people going into the center caused a stir in February 2008.

Patients who had been visiting Planned Parenthood can be absorbed by the Health Department, said Dr. Kerry Gateley, Central Virginia Health District director.

The Health Department can provide the same services people would receive at Planned Parenthood, including treatment for underage teens, Gateley said.

Those services are required by law and include contraception, free pregnancy tests, screening for breast and cervical cancer, treatment for sexually transmitted infection and HIV prevention, Gateley said.

At the Johnson Health Center, news of Planned Parenthood closing was “pretty sad in terms of less access to care for women in the area,” said Dr. Joseph Teel, medical director at the Johnson Center.

The center is one of the city’s safety-net health care providers, Teel said, and it already was hiring two more physicians because of increasing demand from people who have lost jobs, health insurance or experienced other economy-related problems.

The Free Clinic provides gynecological services twice a month, according to its Web site.

The Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center on Thomson Drive is sponsored by Lynchburg-area Christians and offers a pro-life alternative to women with unplanned pregnancies, according to its Web site.

The Bedford Pregnancy Center offers similar services.

Liberty Godparent Foundation assists pregnant teens, babies and adoptive families through the Liberty Godparent Maternity Home and Family Life Services Adoption Agency.