Closing Clinics or Corporate Reconstruction?(Planned Parenthood Federation of America)

If you saw in the news that Planned Parenthood was closing the clinics associated with its South Florida affiliate, you might have jumped for joy. Hopefully, some lives were saved, but don't assume the clinics are gone for good. Indications are that this is simply a part of Planned Parenthood's larger national corporate restructuring.

According to the March 21, 2008, edition of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, representatives of the national PPFA office inspected facilities at the South Palm Beach and Broward Counties affiliate and found deficiencies in clinic conditions, medical operations, and policies and procedures. As a result, the federation asked the group to stop services at its Boca Raton, Oakland Park, Tamarac, Pembroke Pines, and Deerfield Beach centers until the problems are resolved. (The Palm Beach Post indicated that at least the clinic in Boca Raton was limiting services, but not actually closing it doors. New patients were being referred elsewhere, but existing patients could still come by and pick up test results.)

Several local board members had been complaining to the national office for at least 16 months about the affiliate's finances and medical documentation, the paper said.

The group's latest tax return indicated that the affiliate had been running a deficit in 2005, the Palm Beach Post reported (3/22/08). The Post also said the ...