A Win for Local Advocacy in Lorain County
It started with a strange voicemail message.
“Hey there, I monitor Planned Parenthood locations nationwide, and a new one just showed up in Ohio. Could you call me back?”
I called her back later that afternoon, curious but fairly certain she must be wrong. New Planned Parenthood locations do not just suddenly materialize.
As we talked, I pulled up Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio’s website. Sure enough, there it was: a location listed as “Lorain Public Library Pop Up.” Under “About This Health Center,” the listing said hours were available every Friday, walk-ins were welcome, and insurance wasn’t required but was accepted.
This pop-up was so comprehensive that it even listed multiple in-person services offered at this location, including birth control, emergency contraception, and HIV services, among other things.
So she wasn’t wrong.
I reached out to the Lorain County Right to Life office and left a message to ask if they had heard anything about it. Over the next several days, we talked, and the local group got busy gathering information about what was happening. They observed that two people appeared to be staffing the office hours. They contacted the library. They expressed their concerns politely but directly: how could any organization use a meeting room to run their business?
The library’s response? They said anyone could use the telehealth room.
Well that makes sense—a telehealth room is a handy service to allow people to hae a private place to communicate with their medical providers online if they don’t have the ability to do so elsewhere. Just like a library meeting room, I think we all agree that people and groups should have access to use a space without viewpoint discrimination.
But that answer didn’t square with Planned Parenthood’s own advertising. Office hours? In-person staff and in-person services, all listed as the “Lorain Public Library Pop Up”?
That is a very different thing from an individual using a telehealth room for a private appointment.
Lorain County Right to Life began sending emails to supporters encouraging them to contact the library. Maybe the library wasn’t even aware of it, but they were being used as a free spot (well not really free; a taxpayer-paid spot is more accurate) for Planned Parenthood to push out its abortion-centered model of “healthcare.”
Because whatever they would like the public to believe – perhaps that most of what they do is prevent pregnancy – the reality is that Planned Parenthood is the number one abortion chain in the nation. Their latest annual report shows that they were responsible for the deaths of 434,450 babies in 2023-24. In fact, abortion constituted 97% of the services specifically dedicated to pregnant women, with the other 3% made up of prenatal services, miscarriage care, or an adoption referral.
It certainly looks like they are pushing one outcome, doesn’t it?
Visit their website, and the messaging is just as revealing. DONATE! We need your support! Matching gift for a limited time! Strong-looking women in lab coats grace the majority of the photos. The impression is clear: poor, maligned Planned Parenthood just wants to provide free health care, but can’t afford it without your donation.
That would be false on both counts: the “health care” isn’t free, and Planned Parenthood is raking in billions in cash. To be specific, they reported over $2.1 billion in income and almost $2.5 billion in net assets. That’s not a typo—billion, with a B.
This is not a struggling charity trying to stretch limited resources. Yet here they were, apparently presenting a taxpayer-supported library resource as a Planned Parenthood “pop-up.” That is not access. That is exploitation.
Of course, the thoughtful people over at Planned Parenthood also take a moment on their website to warn unsuspecting women to “be aware of fake clinics, also known as crisis pregnancy centers,” claiming that these centers advertise pregnancy testing and counseling while trying to shame, scare, or pressure women out of abortion.
The hypocrisy is hard to miss. Planned Parenthood accuses pregnancy centers of false advertising while its own listing appeared to turn a public library telehealth room into their fake pop-up shop.
Yes, beware the free places that offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, diapers, baby clothes, parenting classes, counseling, and practical help without charging women a dime. Planned Parenthood would rather women come to them – where abortion is sold, labeled “empowerment,” and added to their record-breaking abortion total.
But don’t bother checking Planned Parenthood’s website for the Lorain information.
Someone finally must have told them to stop it. First, the “pop-up” designation was taken down. Later, the entire location was quietly removed.
I’m grateful that Lorain County Right to Life put the work in to respectfully but firmly convey to the library that Planned Parenthood was clearly violating their rules for use, and kept at it until Planned Parenthood complied.
Planned Parenthood never seems to miss an opportunity to use public resources, public trust, and public confusion to expand its reach. But in Lorain County, local pro-lifers were paying attention – and this time, Planned Parenthood’s quiet little “pop-up” disappeared.
That is a win for local advocacy. It is also a reminder: vigilance matters.