Henderson's Planned Parenthood opens door
Out of business due to 'lack of interest'
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Jan, 1999

After a much-ballyhooed grand opening almost two years ago, the satellite center of Planned Parenthood in Henderson closed its doors for the last time on Nov. 9.  “We were forced to close,” lamented Carol Ryan, the director of Evansville’s Planned Parenthood clinic, “due to lack of interest.”

The clinic, which targeted teens, offered information about sex, birth control, and referral services, including for abortion.  “We were disappointed that it didn’t grow as we had expected,” said Ryan.  “We know that Planned Parenthood offers a multitude of services, and we had hoped within a year to 18 months that we would be offering a full range of services there.”

The project to establish a Henderson clinic was jointly initiated by Planned Parenthood of Louisville and of Central and Southern Indiana and was managed by the Evansville clinic.  “Basically, when we first started out in Henderson we were really hoping to serve the teen population,” said Ryan. “And it seems they were being well-served by the state Department of Health.”

What Ryan was not aware of, according to Jeanmarie Parrott, founder and director of Marsha’s Place, the local pregnancy care center, is that the health department refers their abortion-minded women to them.  “We’re a very pro-life community,” said Parrott. “So community agencies work very well with us.”

Parrott also credits a very active group of prayer intercessors in the area for the closing of the clinic, “These people are real prayer warriors!” 

Ironically, news of the clinic’s closing was reported in the Nov. 22 edition of the local paper, two days after The Family Foundation’s seminar in Henderson challenging abstinence before marriage had front page billing.

Dr. David Hager, a nationally recognized expert on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and professor at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, has spoken at Family Foundation town meetings in six different western Kentucky cities this fall.  He illuminates in his message the dramatic rise in STDs and emotional trauma that sexually-active teens are facing.  Over 1,000 educators, health care professionals and parents have participated in his seminars.

“I’d like to think Dr. Hager’s message had something to do with it (the closing),” quipped Rachel McCubbin, coordinator of The Family Foundation project that features Hager’s seminar.  “But if teens weren’t showing up for their services, it simply goes to show that the dangers of premarital sex are already beginning to be avoided by a wiser generation of kids.”

McCubbin commented that teens can be more responsible and are more interested in healthy life-styles than the “safe sex” crowd realizes.  “We had almost 18,000 teens come to hear [University of Kentucky basketball star] Cameron Mills during the week he toured, challenging abstinence before marriage and faithfulness once married.  None were bucking his message.  They just wanted truth.”
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst