Life Links 3/4/11

Golden Gate Community Health, the former Planned Parenthood affiliate which Dian Harrison ran into the ground, has closed four of its clinics and is pleading with supporters for donations. However, it appears their big donors jumped ship back to Planned Parenthood.

With $800,000, board members said GGCH could immediately reopen for several more weeks. With an extra $1.2 million, board members said the organization could reopen for the long term.

But clinic officials are not optimistic.

“I think that chance is extremely slim, because we’ve been in trouble for months,” said Andrea Porter, GGCH’s hired attorney. “We’ve gone out to the community and the money is just not there.” If last-ditch fundraising efforts don’t work, the organization expects to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a matter of weeks, Porter said.....

About 50 employees were laid off on Monday, Porter said, and another 34 will remain at the organization's San Francisco clinic on Eddy Street through the end of the week, when that clinic will also close.

The South Dakota Senate passed a bill requiring women considering an abortion to visit a crisis pregnancy center and wait 72 hours before their abortion.


The Texas House has passed ultrasound legislation.

Flexing their super-majority muscle in the Texas House, Republican lawmakers swatted away a swarm of amendments offered by the Democratic minority on Thursday and gave preliminary approval to a House version of a bill requiring doctors to perform a sonogram on women requesting an abortion. Declared an emergency by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, the measure passed by a vote of 103 to 42.

House Bill 15, sponsored by state Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, requires a doctor performing an abortion to conduct the sonogram at least 24 hours before the procedure was to take place. The doctor also is required to show the woman the sonogram image, play the sound of the fetal heartbeat for her and describe in some detail the image that appears on the sonogram. The woman does not have to view the sonogram or hear the heartbeat, although she still would have to hear the doctor's description.

The state of Nebraska has been ordered to pay $136,000 to cover Planned Parenthood's legal expenses on a bill PP challenged and Nebraska's attorney general decided against defending.


Justin Moose was sentenced to 30 months in jail after pleading guilty to giving bomb-making instructions to an undercover FBI agent posing as someone willing to bomb an abortion clinic.