Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Monday, July 7, 2014
(BEDFORD) - The Planned Parenthood facility in Bedford is shutting its doors on July 25 after providing health care for nearly 40 years.
The Bedford facility opened in 1975.
The clinic has lost a large number of patients over the last decade. New medical guidelines that have been issued in the last several years recommend women get tested for cervical cancer only once every three years instead of annually, which Planned Parenthood officials say has dropped the number of patients the facility is seeing.
After several years of monitoring patient traffic, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky President Betty Cockrum says though it was a painful decision, Bedford's cannot sustain keeping the doors open given the limited hours and staffing they currently have in place.
The Bedford clinic sees about 900 patients annually.
While Bedford does have other medical facilities, Cockrum says she fears those women will now have to traveling to other Planned Parenthood centers in Bloomington or Seymour for medical services like Pap tests, abortion and adoption services, birth control, and STD and pregnancy tests.
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