Ex-Planned Parenthood director celebrates closure of Houston facilities: 'Not shocking'

EXCLUSIVE: Former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist Abby Johnson said the organization's announcement that two of its facilities in Houston, Texas, will be shutting down this fall represents a "symbolic victory" for the pro-life movement.

Johnson, who resigned in 2009, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that she believes the pro-life movement secured a key win with the facility closures, which includes a 78,000-square-foot clinic that was once the largest abortion facility in the Western Hemisphere before Texas' abortion ban.

"I think it's a victory, I think more than anything it's certainly taking ground for the pro-life movement," Johnson said. "As far as being a victory in saving babies, it's more of a symbolic victory in that way, because women aren't walking into that building to get abortions anymore. Abortions in the state of Texas are happening online."

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast — which runs six clinics in the Houston area and two in Louisiana — will close its Prevention Park and Southwest centers on Sept. 30, while the other Houston facilities will be acquired by the organization's largest Texas affiliate.

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Facilities in GOP-led states with abortion restrictions, including Texas, have been forced to cease procedures following the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe V. Wade and returned power to make laws regarding abortion back to the states.

Johnson, who worked for eight years at a clinic in Bryan, Texas, that was run by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, recalled the celebration among her former colleagues when plans for the Houston mega-facility were unveiled, although she resigned from the organization before it was opened in 2010.

"I was in the room on the day that they unveiled the plans. I was in the room on the day that they unveiled the model of that building. Everyone was so excited that we were going to have this 78,000-square-foot abortion facility," Johnson said. "I remember the capacity that they were going to be able to see, the capacity of patients, the excitement of being able to perform 75 abortions every day, six days a week."

"So the fact that this facility is no longer even going to be an option, even if surgical abortion was reinstated here in the state of Texas, that facility is no longer going to be operational," she continued. "It's no longer going to be able to be used as an abortion facility. That in itself is a victory."

The company cited rising costs, staffing shortages and low reimbursement rates as the reasons for closing the two Houston facilities. State GOP officials in recent years have made repeated attempts to shut down Planned Parenthood even after nearly all abortions were banned under Texas law.

The closings in Houston come amid several closures of Planned Parenthood facilities in various states, including New York, where the organization is selling its only Manhattan health center building for $39 million.

Johnson, who now runs a pro-life ministry, said mergers were already happening when she worked for Planned Parenthood, including with the facility she worked for, and she expects mergers to continue as more facilities close across the country.

"When I first began working for Planned Parenthood, there were almost 100 affiliates. That number has more than halved since I left Planned Parenthood. Affiliates are merging, clinics are closing and they are losing staff. They're having to lay off staff because of clinic closures and mergers," she said, adding that "morale is low" and the work environment is not happy.

She said Planned Parenthood wanted to be the "big guy" and essentially close down independent abortion providers to create a monopoly, which she said seems like it will not end up happening.

"Many of the independent providers are closing as well. Planned Parenthood facilities are also closing at a very rapid rate," she said.

Johnson also said she believes the shuttering of the facility is "incredibly demoralizing" and likely "humiliating" for Planned Parenthood and the pro-choice lobby.

"That was a trophy for Planned Parenthood to operate the largest Planned Parenthood in the country," she said. "And for the largest Planned Parenthood to have to close, I think it's incredibly demoralizing and probably humiliating for them as well."

Addressing Planned Parenthood's claim that abortions make up only 3% of its services, Johnson said that has been proven false given that facilities in states with abortion bans have had to close. 

"Now we're being proven right because all of these facilities that don't provide abortions are being forced to shut down," Johnson said. "Because abortion is an overwhelming part of what they do, so all of these clinics that do not do abortions are being forced to close."

She said she was not shocked to see that the mega-facility was closing since it can no longer bring in money from performing abortions and can now only offer its other services. 

"You've got a seven-story, 78,000-square-foot building that's only doing birth control and STD testing. It's not shocking that it closed down because you don't have any significant revenue coming into the facility. There are no abortions going on. That's their primary source of revenue," she said.

Large facilities in some Democrat-led states are not experiencing the same setbacks because they are able to continue performing abortions and have money flowing in because of it, Johnson said.

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"I think Texas, Louisiana, the southern states, we could have a unique opportunity here because we don't have abortion," she said. "We don't have legal abortion here in the state and we don't have state and federal money pouring into these facilities."

She also noted that places, like California, allowing access to surgical abortion are completely overrun with patients who travel for the procedure since it is banned in GOP-led states.

Johnson emphasized that despite the victory in Houston, the pro-life movement still has a lot of work to do, pointing to data showing that abortion numbers in Texas have remained about the same since the state banned surgical abortions.

"Even though abortion is technically illegal in the state of Texas, women are having abortions at the same exact rate as it was when it was legal," she said. "These women are going online, they're getting abortions from online abortion providers."

Abortion pills are "very easy to obtain," she highlighted.