05-18 3527 Lincoln Way West Zone Map Amendment

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SBT, Amanda Gray, March 12, 2016 SOUTH BEND—The Women's Pavilion,a long-standing clinic providing abortions and other health services to local and regional women,will shut down on Friday. The abortion provider, Dr. Ulrich "George" Klopfer, had stopped abortion services in November, but now the clinic will fully close. The pavilion,which opened in 1978,was faced with both legal and social challenges from the beginning. The news of its closing was met with regret by some and with joy by others. According to the activist group Pro-Choice South Bend,which broke the news, abortion services had stopped in November but women seeking the procedure could still come for referral services at the South Bend facility at 2010 Ironwood Circle.Group leadership referred those seeking abortion services to Planned Parenthood in Merrillville, Ind.,or Kalamazoo, or to Family Planning Associates in Chicago. The group lamented the need for local women to now travel for the procedure,and said they will hold a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Thursday at the clinic. "Many people in need of an abortion don't have money or time to spare," Pro-Choice South Bend said in a news release. "To receive the health care they rightfully deserve, they now have to travel long distances for two to four hours for multiple appointments, which increases the chance of preventable health risks and imposes financial burdens. Some individuals see no other option than to unsafely self-abort." The release added that"making choices about your own body should be a basic human right. There will be abortion care in South Bend's future.This is certainly not the end." St.Joseph County Right to Life celebrated the clinic's closure in its own news release,citing public challenges to the clinic's license, the medical license of Klopfer and inspection reports as reason for the clinic to close. Klopfer came to an agreement with the Indiana State Department of Health to close the Women's Pavilion in November,after the state agency filed a motion to revoke the clinic's license in January 2015.Though Klopfer or anyone on the clinic's staff could have refiled for the license after 90 days, no applications were filed in 2016 for that clinic or any additional one in the state of Indiana, according to Amanda Turney, attorney for the ISDH. Historical opposition The Women's Pavilion as well as abortion services in general have been contested both in the courts and on the streets since before doors opened in 1978. According to Tribune archives,the Women's Pavilion drew opposition soon after it opened in 1978, with St.Joseph's Hospital objecting to the nearby clinic's first location at 425 N.St. Louis St.,claiming in court documents that the location for the clinic would cause"irreparable damages" to the hospital by community members associating the abortion services with the hospital,whose leadership opposed the procedure. St.Joseph County Right to Life Committee formed about the same time as the clinic's proposal,and the two entities have gone head-to-head since.At least two other lawsuits were filed against the clinic in thatfirst year alone. Clinic staff have fought back, first with arguments against the 1978 injunction, accusing hospital personnel of"attempting to impose their personal,subjective religious belief upon others by pursuing the nuisance action."That lawsuit, as well as two others, were ruled in the clinic's favor,with the only requirement from the lawsuit brought by St_ Joseph's Hospital being that doctors providing abortions need to be licensed in Indiana and have hospital admitting privileges ora transfer agreement. The ruling halted abortions at the clinic for more than six months in 1981 and into L982,as the doctors at the clinic could not get formal transfer agreements with local hospitals. The injunction ruling was amended in January 1982 so that any licensed doctor could perform the procedure without admitting privileges, though the clinic did keep agreements with "several doctors" locally to admit patients on an emergency basis.