Last month in Virginia’s capital, the Richmond City Council voted unanimously to sell a neglected school building on the edge of the city for $10 to the national abortion promoter and business, Planned Parenthood. The meeting was marked by the 60 citizens who came to oppose the proposal and offered testimony, followed
by a rapid vote that took less than 15 seconds!


The entire proposal seems to have been a done deal well before the planning commission meeting last week, or the final full council vote this week. Last year, in the wake of the Dobbs Decision, Richmond City Council voted on a resolution that called for the Virginia General Assembly to protect and expand abortion access in the state, and Mayor Levar Stoney and the city’s human services department extended their support to Virginia League of Planned Parenthood (VLPP), which worked with the city to identify the old elementary school site as a suitable location for a new facility.


In less than one week, with very little opportunity for public comment or public bids on the property, the entire action was completed. Mayor Stoney’s office issued a release applauding the approval. “I am proud the City Council unanimously voted to approve this land transfer. Richmond is leading the way in the South for protecting reproductive rights and increasing access to healthcare.” 1


It was also evident to those in attendance that the goal of the Council is to invite abortion business from out of state. In 2016, only 6% of Planned Parenthood’s Virginia clients came from out of state, a percentage that had remained roughly the same since 1980. According to VLPP communications director Rae Pickett, they have seen a 30% rise in out of state visits and an 85% increase in abortions since 2022. 2


Testimony from the large crowd who came to oppose the proposal challenged the notion that abortion is health care and reminded the council members that women are at risk of serious risks and side effects after an abortion. Some speakers asked why the city wasn’t using the location to provide shelter to homeless moms and their babies before and after birth, or expand childcare for working moms, or offering education to mothers seeking to advance their skills when a baby comes into their life? Local area African American residents shared their concern that the new abortion facility will be in a neighborhood near school age children and among a predominately black population. As of now, the city of Richmond has never offered to support the local pregnancy resource centers and the work done by these actual non-profit organizations. 


If Planned Parenthood does build on this location, it will mean that there will be six (6) abortion facilities inside the city lines and one (1) more just outside in Henrico County. All three facilities add to the reputation that Virginia is becoming known as the abortion capital of the south.


One must ask how many facilities will be enough for the Mayor and the Council. Does Virginia really want to be known as the place that will do an abortion on anyone from anywhere at any time during pregnancy? Abortions are legal in Virginia throughout pregnancy now.


Alarmingly the city of Richmond is currently in the path of dangerous and unsavory traffickers who use the U.S. 95 corridor as a primary route. Has the city considered that? Are they comfortable being used by individuals trying to hide their crimes? The new site is particularly easy to access from U.S. 95. Does the
Mayor worry about that at all or are he and the members of the Council too much in Planned Parenthood’s corner? Does anyone really care about the women at risk? It is clear they do not care about the babies.


Richmond is not alone in supporting new abortion businesses. Since Dobbs other Virginia cities have adopted or proposed similar proposals, including Alexandria and Roanoke. New abortion facilities are springing up around the Commonwealth. Since 2022 seven new facilities have opened or been approved, making a total of
twenty-three. Pop up organizations are being set up along the borders of Virginia with the sole purpose of raising money to pay for the abortions of out of state women who come here. The critical question is why are our cities aligning themselves with the abortion industry?


Virginia is not the only state where there has been a jump in new abortion facilities. Pro-abortion groups are working to promote abortion businesses or even advertise that they are prepared to help women cross state lines or even possibly violate other states’ laws in order to generate more abortions in states with few or
no pro-life laws in place. Remember, these businesses and organizations don’t provide free abortions, whether surgical or chemical. Abortions cost hundreds of dollars and they see a new opportunity to rake in the money from frightened women whom they manipulate so easily. The babies' lives are of no consequence
to an industry on overdrive.


States that border all 14 states that have expanded their pro-life laws are seeing an increase in abortion facilities. According to Guttmacher.org, the number of brick-and-mortar clinics providing abortion care in the United States declined by 5%—a net loss of 42 clinics—between 2020 and March 2024. During this period, much of the decrease in clinic numbers was due to the cessation of abortion care in the 14 states with total abortion bans. By contrast, the number of abortion clinics increased by an average of 3% where abortion is not completely banned... In 36 states and DC, where abortion was not completely banned, there were 21 more clinics operating in March 2024 than in 2020, a 3% increase. 3 Sadly, the rate of abortions has jumped to 11% since 2020 which is the highest rate in over a decade.


For those of us that live in states with virtually no protective laws in place now this means women are being told it is safe to travel to obtain an abortion, then return home with or without time to ensure that she is stable. Do these abortion promoters care if she has adequate care when she is alone in her home? Probably not.
The abortion industry has allowed facilities to operate outside the standards of basic care for decades. They oppose the passage of laws proposed to hold them to a clear set of requirements intended for the safety of women, if not the babies that die during every abortion. Some large promoters like Planned Parenthood comply so as to stay in business, other facilities aren’t so conscientious, as attested to from shocking stories that occasionally break in local papers when a woman is injured or dies.


Of deep concern is that as wonderful as the reversal of Roe is on many levels, and the hope that many lives are being saved in states that have been able to pass pro-life laws, we face a stark reality: some states are indeed becoming destinations for abortions. From recent analysis by the Guttmacher Institute:

Between 2020 and 2023—the two most recent time periods for which there are full-year data on abortion incidence—abortions increased by 11% to a national total of 1,037,000. In 2023, 17% of these abortions were to people traveling out of state for care, compared with only 9% in 2020. Because many people forced to cross
state lines for care go to the nearest state where services are available, increases in patients tended to be highest for clinics in states that share a border with states that have total bans or early gestational bans.

All states that do not completely ban abortion but that share a border with those that do saw increases in abortion caseloads between 2020 and 2023, and on average, these states had greater increases in out-of-state patients than other states without total bans.

States sharing borders with ban states saw increased numbers of clinics during this period—which allowed them to accommodate very large increases in patients. For example:

In New Mexico, the number of clinics more than doubled (from six to 13, a 117% increase) and the number of abortions rose by 256% (an increase of 15,000 abortions).

In Kansas, clinic numbers increased by 50% (from four to six) between 2020 and 2023, and the number of abortions rose by 152% (an increase of 12,440). 4


The process of preventing the expansion of abortion facilities in states like Virginia involves electing dedicated pro-life women and men to state office, often a long slow process, and then the will from those elected officials to protect women and their babies instead of the abortion lobby!


Of special concern are the so called “Right to Women’s Reproductive Health Care” amendments to state constitutions that are being forced on the public as referendums and legislative actions. Amendments that have already been adopted in some states are stripping away protective laws and opening a door to the unchecked establishment of ever more abortion facilities.


Why should we care about how many states are becoming centers for abortion groups to ply their deadly trade? We should care because we all have women and girls that we love in our families whom we want to be able to receive necessary health care before, during, and after a pregnancy. We must care because creating certain states that will allow reckless abortionists to operate without regulation because “abortion is essential women’s healthcare” will place the women we love in harm’s way. Ultimately, we must care because every abortion still means that a helpless preborn baby dies. No slogans or rhetoric can change that truth.

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1 Nadeau, Ryan, “New Planned Parenthood Health Center Approved by Richmond City Council,” WRLC, July 22, 2024, https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/new-planned-parenthood-health-center-approved-by-richmond-city-
council/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI%20am%20proud%20the%20City,the%20VLPP%27s%20CEO%2C%20Paulette%20McElwain., retrieved on August 5, 2024.
2 Williams, Jamal, “Opposing organizations speak on Florida women traveling to Virginia after 6-week abortion ban,” WRLC, May 7, 2024, https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/opposing-organizations-speak-on-florida-women-traveling-to-virginia-after-6-week-abortion-ban/, retrieved on August 5, 2024.
3 Jones, Rachel K., et al, “The Number of Brick-and-Mortar Abortion Clinics Drops, as US Abortion Rate Rises: New Data Underscore the Need for Policies that Support Providers,” Guttmacher, June 2024,
https://www.guttmacher.org/report/abortion-clinics-united-states-2020-2024, retrieved on August 5, 2024.
4 Maddow-Zimmet, Isaac & Gibson, Candace, “Despite Bans, Number of Abortions in the United States Increased in 2023, Guttmacher, March 2024, https://www.guttmacher.org/2024/03/despite-bans-number-abortions-united-states-increased-2023, retrieved on August 5, 2024.

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