Owensboro isn’t the first Western Kentucky city Planned Parenthood has tried to expand to. In 1997, a Planned Parenthood affiliate opened in Henderson at the behest of the Louisville and Evansville branches. The clinic closed less than two years later "due to lack of interest" said Carol Ryan, the director of Evansville Planned Parenthood. Another contributing factor to its early demise may have been that the local health department referred abortion-minded women to Marsha's Place, the local pregnancy care center.

It wasn't the only time pregnancy care centers (PCCs) were an obstacle for Planned Parenthood's agenda, and Planned Parenthood has responded with website verbiage that discourages women from visiting PCCs. Under "frequently asked questions," the website says of PCCs, "...They won't give you complete and correct information about all your options.... They will try to frighten you with films."

The web page also charges PCCs with dishonesty by saying, "They will lie to you about the medical and emotional effects of abortion. They may tell you that you are not pregnant even if you are, to fool you into continuing your pregnancy."

Jeanmarie Parrott, director of Marsha's Place Pregnancy Care Center in Henderson disagrees. "We are careful to give women accurate information about abortion, about their body as well as the unborn child," she said. "We don't frighten or scare, we don't coerce, and we don't use graphic films."

Parrott said she believes Planned Parenthood is acting out of desperation, explaining that abortion and its revenues are declining nationwide. "Planned Parenthood believes that PCCs are the number one reason this is happening so they are making an attempt to discredit the pregnancy care center movement."

Ironically, even as Planned Parenthood accused PCCs of not telling women the truth, it opposed the 1998 informed consent law --a law which mandated full medical disclosure to women seeking abortion.

Thirty-four PCCs dot the state, an increase of six since 1998. And the centers have established reputations of integrity according to Debbie Snyder, Supervisor of the Union County Health Department. Snyder teams up with the local pregnancy care center to teach sexual abstinence in the public schools.

Debby Higgs is the director of Shelter of Love PCC in Union County. "We have worked hard to build relationship with the health department and community leaders to better serve women in crisis pregnancies," Higgs said. "Unlike Planned Parenthood, we do not profit from our services--which allows us to elevate the client's best interest--something Planned Parenthood can't claim."