Washington, D.C., November 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two notorious abortion facilities have closed or are scheduled to close, continuing a national trend of closures documented by the pro-life group Operation Rescue in its “Project Daniel 5:25.”
In Yakima, Washington, the Cedar Women’s Clinic, which was the first abortion clinic to open in that city 31 years ago, closed Monday due to a dramatic decrease in the demand for abortions. According to statistics kept by the state, the abortion rate for women ages 15 to 44 dropped from 18 per 1,000 in 2008 to 16.7 per 1,000 in 2009. One abortion facility remains in Yakima.
In Michigan, Womancare of Downriver in Southgate, owned by abortionist Alberto Hodari, is currently in the process of being sold to a physician whose practice does not include abortions. Once the deal is complete, the abortion center will close.
The Southgate facility made it into the news last year after Caitlin Bruce, a former client of Hodari, filed a lawsuit against him and an assistant whom she claims forced her to have an abortion in April 2008. The lawsuit claimed Hodari "had his assistant ... restrain Caitlin Bruce and cover her mouth" and began the abortion procedure "despite Caitlin Bruce's objecting and screaming, 'Stop, stop, I don't want this,' and despite her desire not to undergo the procedure."
Another woman, Jennifer McCoy, came forward last year with allegations that Hodari forced an abortion on her at the Southgate site when she was 16-years old. McCoy praised the closure of the facility: “That clinic will never do another abortion again,” she said.
Hodari's practice has also been implicated in the deaths of at least four women from abortion-related complications. In June 2009, the Disciplinary Subcommittee of Michigan's Board of Medicine fined Hodari $10,000 for negligence in connection with the botched abortion death of Regina Johnson.
Operation Rescue said that the Southgate facility was one of at least two abortion mills that Hodari was trying to sell. In all, Hodari operates six abortion mills in Eastern Michigan.
The Washington and Michigan closures are part of an increasing trend that has been taking place in America over the past twenty years. According to Operation Rescue, over two-thirds of America’s abortion clinics have closed since 1991, when there were over 2,100 clinics nationwide.
“When we released our ‘Project Daniel 5:25’ listing of all remaining surgical abortion clinics in the United States last December, there were 713. Today, counting the Southgate mill, which will soon close, there are only 694,” said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger. “That’s great news for women and their pre-born babies.”
Twenty abortion clinics have closed in the past 11 months at a rate of nearly two per month.
Sullenger pointed out that more clinics would close if they ceased to receive taxpayer dollars.
“Government funding continues to artificially prop up a failing abortion industry. Without tax-funding, more of these clinics would fold,” said Sullenger. “Until we can encode legal protections for the pre-born, we must work to expose and defund the abortion industry. Closing clinics is a proven way to reduce abortions and save lives.”
Operation Rescue maintains a listing of abortion faclities on its “Project Daniel 5:25” page. The project was named after the Biblical story of Daniel, who was able to read the handwriting on the wall and predict the fall of a wicked kingdom. Operation Rescue says that the trend of abortion mill closings is “handwriting on the wall” signaling the end of abortion.
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