Services to Be 'Discontinued' at DC Abortion Clinic

Cortney O'Brien | June 17, 2015 12:00 PM

The sign says it all. Later this month, the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Washington, DC, just two blocks from the White House, will be closing.

Temporary Inconvenience Lasting Improvement.
We are opening two new health centers in Prince George's County and Northeast DC later this year.
In the meantime, we are there for you with additional appointments in Silver Spring, Gaithersburg and Falls Church.
Services will be discontinued at this location on June 26, 2015.
We look forward to seeing you at our new locations.

The flier is a welcome announcement for pro-life activists who have spent nearly every week praying and counseling young women outside of the clinic that performs an average of 40 abortions a week. I've shadowed these brave sidewalk counselors before and have witnessed them endure profanity from passersby and violent resistance while trying to offer young women pro-life pamphlets of necessary information before they head into their abortion appointments. Quite a reception for people who are just trying to save lives.

It now looks like it was all worth it, however.

While the flier does state two new 'health centers' are opening, Operation Rescue's Troy Newman told LifeNews that may not happen for a long time.

“It may be many months before a new facility is ready, if ever. In the meantime, Planned Parenthood will not be killing babies in the nation’s capital, and that is great news,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “This closure is a huge victory for pro-life activists who have worked to save babies from abortion and even suffered wrongful arrests there.”

The somber presence of an abortion clinic just steps from the White House was not lost to pro-lifers in the nation's capital. A couple of years ago, activist Brett Manero explained the tragic irony:

“Sometimes, when I’m counseling, if you turn and look you can see the White House,” Manero told Townhall. “I think how Thomas Jefferson lived there, the author of our Declaration of Independence, which reads we all have ‘inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ It’s such an irony.”

This pro-life victory comes on the heels of headlines that abortions are declining in nearly every state.

One more down, about 1,700 to go.