Women's clinic that made local history is closing

YAKIMA, Wash. -- After 31 years of providing health care services to area women, Yakima's first abortion clinic -- the Feminist Women's Health Center -- is closing Monday.

"It's regrettable. We'd rather not have to close," said Beverly Whipple, one of the clinic's founders who steered it through turbulent times in the face of early anti-abortion protests.

She said that with the expansion of Planned Parenthood abortion services in recent years, the region is now overserved. "There isn't the patient volume for two main providers," Whipple said.

All women of childbearing age -- 15 to 44 -- are having fewer abortions, according to recent state data. The rate of reported abortions for this group was 16.7 per 1,000 in 2009, compared with 18 in 2008.

The pregnancy rate per 1,000 for the same group of women also dropped from 85.2 in 2008 to 83 last year. Aborted births are counted as pregnancies.

Explanations for the drop in abortions aren't clear. Anti-abortion activists say abstinence and counseling services are big reasons, while others point to the wider availability of contraceptives and sex education.

Whipple and Deborah Lazaldi -- who later left to attend law school in Seattle -- opened the Feminist Women's Health Center in Yakima in 1979. The clinic provided birth-control services, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and Pap smears to about 11,000 visitors a year. It also provided an average of 1,000 to 1,200 safe abortions a year.

The Yakima clinic later operated under the umbrella of Cedar River Clinics, which includes offices in Renton, Wash., and Tacoma that will stay open.

Charlotte Taft, director of the Abortion Care Network, part of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers in Washington, D.C., said more and more independent clinics like the ones she represents are struggling.

She cited the deaths and retirements of providers who were early pioneers in the movement and competition from larger providers, like Planned Parenthood.

"You end up with an independent provider trying to figure how to compete against a name everybody knows," she said. "For me, this (closure) is a tremendous, enormous loss.

"The very best clinics that I know of are the ones that really care about providing a support system, assistance to families and good information on birth control. Independent clinics are really, really good at that."

Anna Franks, president and chief executive officer for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, said she's also sad to see the clinic close because it's helped so many women over the years.

"We believe women deserve a choice in providers. Women need options," she said. "We went in with the philosophy that more providers is often safer for women. Doctors could leave at any time and that would leave no doctors at all."

But Franks said she doesn't believe Planned Parenthood contributed to the clinic's closure because only 3 percent to 4 percent of its services are clients seeking abortions. The rest is family planning and other medical needs such as sexually transmitted diseases.

During Whipple's time in Yakima, the anti-abortion movement from the late 1980s to the mid-'90s proved the most difficult. Protesters tried to prevent women from keeping their appointments. People called her a "baby killer," and Whipple's Everett-based clinic was firebombed out of existence.

Reacting to word of the closure Friday, Skip Schoff, vice president of Christian Broadcasting of Yakima and a longtime anti-abortion activist, welcomed the news.

"I'm very pleased because they are murdering human beings there," Schoff said. "Any of us who are pro-life are praying for the closure of every abortion mill that is murdering the unborn. I couldn't be happier."

But Whipple said she is proud to have provided wellness and abortion services to more than 38,000 women in Yakima, giving them the freedom and confidence to make their own health-related decisions.

"We always share information in a way people can understand," she said. "Without control over their reproduction, people have little control over their lives."

Despite the clinic's closure, Whipple said her organization will continue to host events and have staff available to answer health questions by phone.

* Erin Snelgrove can be reached at 509-577-7684 or esnelgrove@yakimaherald.com.