VENTURA : Planned Parenthood to Open New Clinic

Planned Parenthood is scheduled to open its new Ventura County center Monday across the street from a Ventura church whose minister plans to counsel women not to get abortions.

Last month, Planned Parenthood closed its former Oxnard clinic, where it performed abortions. It will close its Meta Street office in Ventura with the opening of the new clinic on Ralston Street, a spokeswoman said.

Rev. George Golden, pastor of the Ventura Baptist Temple, supported an unsuccessful letter-writing campaign to block the arrival of his new neighbor.

“I talked with the City Council, and they said there was nothing they could do,” Golden said Friday.

While he opposes abortion, Golden said he was more concerned about “the shock-treatment kind of protests” that anti-abortion groups are expected to hold outside the clinic, and particularly their effect on the kindergarten to eighth-grade students in his church’s private school.

As a countermeasure, Golden said he is setting up a family counseling service on church grounds to dissuade clinic patrons from getting abortions.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Margaret Connell said the location was the best one available. “We needed a site that could handle both our Oxnard and Ventura services,” she said.