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Abortion Facility in Erie, Pennsylvania Expected to Reopen Soon
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
January 14, 2005

Erie, PA (LifeNews.com) -- The only abortion center in Erie is expected to reopen within a month.

American Women's Services shut down in July because the owners could not find anyone to perform abortions there after a previous abortion practitioner employed ran into problems with his medical license.

The abortion center's chief operating officer, Linda Locke, told an Erie newspaper that it has been difficult to recruit a replacement.

“[Abortion practitioners] are afraid to go to Erie because of the ‘anti-choice’ people, though I have met them, and I don't feel they are out to hurt anyone," Locke told the Erie Times-News.

Locke added the center will be performing abortions two days a week and may be open at other times for testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The new abortionist is not a local doctor, but Locke refused to identify the person.

Locke told the Times-News, “Erie is a very tight community, and local physicians don't want to be identified as abortion providers."

Tim Broderick, the head of the pro-life group known as People for Life, admits the abortion center's reopening represents a setback.

“I expected it, though,” Broderick told the Times-News. “Six months is nothing to this group, when you consider it took them four years to open it in the first place."

People for Life plans to continue its protests outside the abortion center. But, the pro-life group also has other ways of getting the word out.

“We'll still have a presence on the sidewalk, but we're also looking at other ways to increase public awareness about abortion," Broderick told the Times-News.

The group plans a pro-life prayer breakfast and march to call attention to the devastation caused by abortion.

The abortion center is owned by Steve Brigham, who was forced to give up his license to practice medicine in Pennsylvania some years ago. Brigham has also lost his license in other states, yet he continues to operate a chain of abortion businesses on the Eastern seaboard.

Last year, the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation noted, "The health and safety of women in Erie are being placed at great risk because of Brigham's abortion center. Lives have been lost needlessly, and women's physical and psychological health have been jeopardized because of Brigham's actions."

Brigham's center is the first abortion facility to operate in Erie in more than 20 years.