An Indiana Planned Parenthood health center closed Monday, accusing local anti-abortion activists of leaving it with no choice but to shut its doors after years of harassment.The facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana’s second-largest city, provides cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections, and birth control, according to the Journal Gazette. It does not perform abortions.“This has nothing to do with demand or finances,” Christie Gillespie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, told the Journal Gazette. “Our closing is solely because of intimidation and harassment of patients, supporters, and providers.”The center had operated on a month-by-month lease for the past year as it tried to find a new location, but its landlord told Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky officials last week that a new, less-controversial tenant would take over the space, the Indy Star reported. Planned Parenthood had been working with a broker to find a new space, but anti-abortion groups purportedly convinced the broker to stop working with them.Planned Parenthood now has a total of 16 health centers in Indiana, according to its website. A sign at the former Fort Wayne health center directed patients to head to the cities of Elkhart or Mishawaka for care, according to WFYI. Both are more than an hour away from Fort Wayne.In a joint statement, Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter and Allen County Right to Life Executive Director Cathie Humbarger applauded the center’s closing but denied Gillespie’s allegations.“We believe Planned Parenthood's closure is due to its dwindling customer base in Indiana and its unpopularity in the greater Fort Wayne community,” the pair said. “Planned Parenthood's accusation that intimidation by Right to Life led to this closure is simply untrue and smacks of an attempt by Planned Parenthood to turn its business woes into a fundraiser."The health center has indeed seen fewer patients in recent years, Planned Parenthood officials told the Associated Press. During the last fiscal year, it treated about 1,500 unduplicated patients; two years ago, it saw about 3,000.But that drop-off was in part due to the 2016 departure of the center’s full-time nurse practitioner, according to the Indy Star. That nurse had worried for her safety after facing harassment from anti-abortion groups, Gillespie said. The center also struggled to recruit other staff for the same reason.Planned Parenthood officials provided the Associated Press with copies of a mailer they said had been sent to Fort Wayne neighborhoods by an anti-abortion group, Created Equal of Ohio. That mailer reportedly featured the name, home address, and photo of a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner.Its message, according to the Associated Press: “There are killers among us.”Created Equal didn’t immediately respond to a VICE News request for comment.In 2017, providers at abortion clinics reported 62 death threats or threats of harm, compared to 33 in 2016, according to a National Abortion Federation report. Providers also dealt with more than 1,700 threats of obstruction, compared to just 580 in 2016.Cover image: Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains addresses the media outside the Planned Parenthood building on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Colorado Springs' Planned Parenthood clinic reopened Monday, nearly three months after a gunman killed three people and injured nine others. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
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