Using a shell company and a decoy address, Planned Parenthood opened a massive abortion clinic in Fairview Heights, Illinois, this month, just across the state border from Missouri.
The facility went up unexpectedly — many of the town’s residents didn’t even know an abortion clinic was going up in their neighborhood, and the contracted construction company Planned Parenthood hired, Tennessee-based Lubin Enterprises, seemed unaware the project was an abortion clinic when reached by phone.
Planned Parenthood hid its identity behind an LLC based in Dallas, Texas, called Raider Ventures. Though Raider Ventures was nothing more than a front company, the process was entirely legal, according to Fairview Heights Mayor Mark Kupsky, who said the use of an LLC is not uncommon.
Still, the clinic caught Kupsky off guard. “I have had a lot of calls, emails, and messages from people expressing their concern about the facility relocating and the additional services they’re going to offer, and to as why the city is allowing it,” he told the Belleville News-Democrat. (Kupsky could not be reached for comment at the time of publication).
Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said secrecy was necessary to prevent pro-life protests from delaying the clinic’s grand opening.
“We needed to make the decision to open this facility in secrecy, just like many other Planned Parenthoods around the country had to do in order to protect the project and be able to complete it on schedule,” she said. “We know there is so much significant augment needs for family planning and abortion care around our region so we wanted to make sure we’re able to move forward and be here for the patients who need us most.”
The location of the new $7 million clinic is telling. Just 13 miles away from the Missouri border, the Fairview Heights clinic is a rebuke to Missouri’s pro-life legislature. Only one abortion clinic remains in St. Louis, and it’s still fighting to keep its license after the state’s health department found egregious health code violations in the facility. Planned Parenthood’s Fairview Heights clinic is just a short drive from St. Louis — 22 minutes, to be exact.
By opening another clinic just down the road and across the state line — and doing all of this in secret, no less — Planned Parenthood is sending a message to the pro-life movement: There’s nothing you can do about it.
Kupsky said he wishes Planned Parenthood had been forthright with the city about its project because now there’s nothing Fairview Heights can do about it.
“I think like anything you always hope that businesses are being upfront and honest with you, and Planned Parenthood has indicated in their interviews they were purposely doing this in secret,” he told the Belleville News-Democrat. “From our standpoint, we wish we would have known in advance, but there’s not a lot we could have done.”
The way in which Planned Parenthood obtained its license might technically be legal, but it speaks to the insidious nature of the abortion industry. Secrecy, hidden identities, shell companies — Planned Parenthood likes to do its work in the dark, out of the public eye, away from scrutiny. And we all know why.
