ARTICLES

Another One Down

Planned Parenthood Closes its Encinitas Clinic

BY BOB MCPHAIL

One of San Diego County's most notorious abortion clinics has closed. The Planned Parenthood clinic on the grounds of Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, where the lives of thousands of unborn babies have been claimed by abortion, ceased operations in late November.

"Our Encinitas Clinic permanently closed on November 21, 2003," Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties noted on its website. No reason for the closure was given, and repeated attempts to contact Planned Parenthood for comment by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful. Patients who call the phone number provided for Planned Parenthood-Encinitas now hear a recorded message that the number is no longer in service. The new number provided is for Planned Parenthood's clinic on First Avenue in San Diego.

Ellen Ramsey, a spokeswoman for Scripps-Encinitas, confirmed that the abortion clinic had been closed, but offered no details as to why. "It was mutually agreeable between the two entities," she said. "We do not know where they went or even if they opened up another office. Please contact them for more information."

News of the closing caught pro-lifers who have had a regular presence outside the Encinitas abortion clinic by surprise. "A doctor pulled over to the side of the road and told us the clinic had closed," said Howard Putnam of Open Eyes Ministries in Oceanside. Between 1999 and 2000, Putnam said he witnessed outside the clinic every Monday, and since 2000 he and others were outside the clinic every third Saturday of the month until the closing. He said that on some occasions the number of pro-lifers outside the Encinitas abortuary reached as high as 70 people.

According to records from the California Department of Health Services, 3306 abortions were performed at the Scripps Hospital clinic in 2000 alone. Planned Parenthood began leasing space from Scripps in 1998. They paid the hospital $75,730 in rent for the year 2000, according to state records.

The presence of an abortion clinic on hospital grounds became a public relations problem for Scripps as soon as news of its affiliation with Planned Parenthood came out. "We know that we were part of discussions going on in the hospital," said Putnam.

A possible concern for Scripps was the level of hostility directed toward the pro-lifers during the five years they maintained their vigil outside the clinic. "We had stuff thrown at us," Putnam said, "coffee, coffee cups, pennies, cigarettes, milkshakes."

One Monday, recalled Putnam, a man came up to him and said, "I don't like what you're doing." Putnam responded: "Well, babies die here. One baby dies every 20 seconds from abortion." He said the man then pushed him and knocked the sign depicting an aborted baby out of his hands. Police found the man who later apologized personally to Putnam who agreed to drop criminal charges after the apology.

But not all the interaction with passersby was negative, explained Putnam. "One time a woman pulled over and thanked us for being out there," he said. "She told us, 'I was going to have an abortion and now I have a 2-year-old son.'" Another woman, who said she had actually entered the clinic to have an abortion, then changed her mind, came out to Putnam and the others and began to cry. "We prayed with her and reinforced her decision," he said. And on another occasion, recounts Putnam, a Highway Patrolman pulled over to question the legality of their presence, and ended up praying with them.

Putnam notes that Planned Parenthood's Encinitas clinic is only the most recent abortion facility in San Diego County to close following a regular pro-life presence outside. Family Planning Associates on Fletcher Parkway in La Mesa, where babies had been aborted for 15 years, closed its doors in 2002 (though it later reopened a clinic on Sixth Avenue in Hillcrest). Owners of the medical building where the abortion clinic was located refused to renew Family Planning Associates' lease after concluding the abortuary's presence in the medical office building was "a detriment."

Pastor Gary Cass of West Hills Christian Fellowship, a very active pro-life church, commented, "We've seen 17 abortion clinics close in San Diego County and over 40 abortionists quit and leave town because of the fervent prayers and faithful actions of pro-lifers in our community."

But the work's not over for Putnam and others who held vigil in Encinitas. "Now it's time to move on and go to another place," he said.

Beginning on Saturday, January 17, Putnam and others have decided to move their pro-life witnessing to the Planned Parenthood clinic at 347 West Mission Avenue in Escondido. The schedule will be the same as it was at the Encinitas facility -- every third Saturday of the month from 8:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. For more information, contact Putnam via e-mail at: Hows4life@compuserve.com

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