Residents Split Over Opening of Clinic : Protesters have targeted site for a month. Planned Parenthood officials are undeterred.

Months before a Planned Parenthood clinic opens its doors, residents of Whittieralready are hotly divided over the family planning center.

Dozens of residents have been showing up at the city’s normally sparsely attended council meetings to protest Planned Parenthood’s decision to locate in Whittier, even though the council has no authority over the clinic.

The 3,700-square-foot facility, now undergoing renovation, is located on Greenleaf Avenue, one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Scheduled to open in December, the clinic will offer gynecological care, family planning services and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Abortions will not be provided unless Planned Parenthood finds a large demand, representatives said.

Handfuls of protesters have been picketing the site of the clinic for the past month.

“There is a fairly large portion of the community that is concerned about the facility opening up,” said City Manager Tom Mauk. “The issue of Planned Parenthood and abortion is an emotional and deeply felt one for people.”

But representatives from Planned Parenthood are determined to open the clinic on schedule and insist that their services are needed and wanted by many in the community.

“We only came into Whittier because we felt comfortable doing it,” said Liz Flowers, director of public affairs and marketing for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. “We didn’t bully our way in. We have strong support.”

Residents protesting the clinic do not appear to come from any one organization. Many said they had heard about the clinic plans at their churches or through the newspaper.

“Planned Parenthood has been very low-key about this whole thing,” said Father Timothy Watson of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, one of the groups protesting on a recent Friday afternoon. “Our ultimate goal is to get Planned Parenthood out of here.”

Flowers says Planned Parenthood is accustomed to protests.

“This is not new to us,” she said. “Planned Parenthood has become the poster child for the anti-choice people even though only 4% of the services we offer are abortions.”

Other residents welcome the clinic.

“It gives an opportunity for a different avenue for women,” said Cynthia Lopez Elwell, a Whittier resident for 31 years. “Particularly for low-income women and women who have no place to go in the area.”

Added Judy Prather, a psychotherapist and Whittier resident for 17 years: “We are not doing a good job about educating people on their options [in family planning]. There should be a place where people can go to see what their options and choices are.”

Both sides say they want to avoid the shootings and other violence and conflicts that have plagued family planning clinics in other communities.

“We do not look forward to the confrontations and violence that we have seen in Florida,” Prather said, referring to the fatal 1993 shooting of a doctor by an antiabortion activist at a Florida clinic.

“We are strictly praying,” said protester Margaret Nemecek. “We are not looking for violence, we are trying to stop the violence.”