East Texas reacts to local Planned Parenthood closure

Published 9:00 pm Friday, July 25, 2025

The recent closure of Planned Parenthood’s Tyler clinic has sparked mixed reactions from the East Texas community, underscoring a divide over reproductive health care.

For some, the closure marks a hard-fought victory in efforts to restrict abortion access. For others, it represents the loss of a vital health care resource for those relying on services such as birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing. Planned Parenthood also offers pregnancy counseling, which includes discussing parenting, abortion and adoption, along with sexual health education to help patients make informed choices.

The Tyler facility, now offering just virtual services, was the only Planned Parenthood office in the Tyler, Longview and surrounding area.

“It affects a broader population than just the city of Tyler,” said Rachel Bayless, an advocate from Athens. “All that you’ve done is taken away a source of health care for people who are uninsured or come from a lower income.”

Meanwhile, Mark Lee Dickson, a pastor and anti-abortion advocate from Longview, said the closure of the Tyler facility has not caused an emergency health crisis in East Texas.

“Planned Parenthood does not have a monopoly on women’s health care,” he said. “The closure of many of the Dairy Queens throughout East Texas has negatively impacted our lives way more than the closure of this Planned Parenthood ever will.”

Concerns about women’s health care

Bayless said Planned Parenthood, as an organization, is misrepresented — a “big bad wolf” narrative that obscures the organization’s role in providing accessible health care. In its absence, Bayless said many East Texans are left without necessary services.

“Planned Parenthood has been just the name and demonized and misrepresented of the services that they provide, especially here in Texas,” Bayless said. “They don’t provide any abortions… that’s all been suspended.” 

Texas has a near-total abortion ban with very limited exceptions and strict penalties for those who perform, induce or attempt an abortion. The law went into effect in 2022.

Bayless criticized politicians’ involvement in women’s health decisions. “… It should be a decision between women and their doctor,” Bayless said.

Once a patient of Planned Parenthood, Jacksonville resident Marlene Jowell said she owes the organization her life.

“I remember as a young woman getting a lot of my health services from Planned Parenthood,” she said, noting the clinic helped detect a potentially life-threatening condition early on. She also emphasized the importance of access to affordable birth control and counseling.

“One of the major purposes of Planned Parenthood was literally to prevent unplanned pregnancies as much as possible,” she added. “Birth control was affordable, well-managed, and accessible through the clinic during critical periods of my early adulthood.”

Jowell warned that unsafe abortions could increase without access to proper care and said misconceptions about the clinic being primarily an abortion provider have “unfairly tarnished its reputation.”

“We’ve gone back 100 years for women — they’re now again able to be victimized by rape and incest, sometimes even within marriage, with no place to turn when they need help,” Jowell said. “I worked all my youth trying to make abortion safe and legal, to minimize suffering through services like Planned Parenthood’s mission. Now, we’re suffering again because people misunderstand and misrepresent that purpose.”

Opponents glad to see closure

Katherine Maxwell-McDonald, a member of the pro-life group 40 Days for Life Tyler, said she has observed a steep decline in business at the Tyler clinic in recent years.

“It is not uncommon for them to have a whole afternoon or whole day where they’ve only got one car, one client coming into their office,” she said, attributing the decline to falling abortion rates nationwide and the increased use of abortion pills at home.

40 Days for Life is an international pro-life organization that mobilizes communities to end abortion through a focused 40-day campaign involving prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil, and community outreach.

According to Maxwell-McDonald, Planned Parenthood’s business was lighter when the organization’s presence is known, as she believes their signs and prayer can influence decisions.

“If somebody was thinking of an abortion and they see a sign that we’re praying … sometimes it gives them pause,” she said. “But if they’re there for birth control, our presence isn’t gonna stop them.”

Maxwell-McDonald acknowledged that Planned Parenthood served a wide range of people who are either low-income or uninsured but said she rarely saw anyone who looked “impoverished.”

“I’m sure they had poor people, but they were just servicing everybody they could,” she said.

Dickson said “good riddance” to the clinic, calling the closure a win. He pointed to Texas’ post-Roe v. Wade abortion laws, saying no abortion facility can legally operate in the state. He criticized Planned Parenthood for referring women to clinics in other states, calling it an “abortion travel agency.”

“The argument that Planned Parenthood did not perform abortions at their Tyler location does not absolve the center from their role in assisting with abortions in Wichita and Pittsburg, Kansas,” Dickson said. “They still played a role in the death of innocent unborn children.”

Facts and figures

“Abortions are way down compared to what they used to be in the ’80s,” Maxwell-McDonald said. “… I think that’s due to better birth control and… young women are aware that the baby is a baby because they’ve seen ultrasound pictures.”

According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortions in the U.S. reached a high of 1.6 million in 1990 but steadily declined for nearly three decades, dropping to 885,000 by 2017. That downward trend began to reverse in 2019 and 2020, with numbers rising to over 930,000 in 2020 — an 8% increase from 2017.

Texas reported a steep decline in abortions following the state’s near-total ban. Just 62 procedures were recorded in 2023 — the first full year under the ban — compared to more than 17,500 in 2022. State data also shows 7,844 Texans obtained abortions in states that reported residency, though that doesn’t capture every out-of-state or self-managed abortion. Still, the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates Texas saw a 64.4% decrease in abortions overall following the fall of Roe v. Wade.

“Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, the pre-Roe v. Wade criminal abortion statutes have been back into effect and restored protections for unborn children from the point of conception,” Dickson said. “In this post-Roe reality, no abortion facility can legally exist in the State of Texas.”

That shift has also changed where and how abortions happen. In 2024, 14% of all abortions were provided by online-only clinics, compared to just 10% the year before. Nearly 155,000 people traveled across state lines for abortions last year — double the number from just four years earlier.

Health care gaps

As of 2023, about 21.6% of working-age Texans lacked health coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund — nearly one in five adults. The state also ranks among the worst in maternal health outcomes. A recent study found Texas’ maternal mortality rate rose by 56% following the implementation of stricter abortion laws, outpacing the national increase of 11% during the same period. 

Despite this, opponents remain firm in their stance.

“We’re just glad that it’s gone,” Maxwell-McDonald said. “The fact that their business was so low tells me the good people of Tyler, Texas did not need a Planned Parenthood in their midst.”

What Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas has to say

Autumn Williams, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, said the organization is reevaluating how best to meet its mission in a challenging political and financial climate.

“In our 90th year as a nonprofit health care provider, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas is analyzing thoughtfully how we effectively meet our mission of providing trusted health care and education for Texans,” Williams said in a written statement. “Texas has the highest number of uninsured residents in the U.S., and yet Planned Parenthood patients are blocked from government programs for breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and other preventive health care due to policies enacted by the Texas Legislature.”

Williams said the Tyler clinic had worked to provide care to anyone who came through its doors. 

“We are so grateful to the Tyler community for its support and to our patients for choosing Planned Parenthood as their health care provider,” she said. “We look forward to continuing to serve this community through the Greater Texas Virtual Health Center and the Planned Parenthood Direct health care app.”

Alternatives for women’s care in East Texas

Although the Planned Parenthood clinic in Tyler has closed its physical location, the organization continues to provide certain reproductive health services through telemedicine. This means that while in-person visits are no longer available locally, residents can still access birth control, STI testing, and counseling remotely.

However, advocates and health experts warn the closure of brick-and-mortar clinics can create barriers for low-income and uninsured patients who may lack reliable internet access or prefer in-person care.

For those who are low-income, uninsured, and in need of reproductive health care, other local options include:

Bethesda Health Clinic, located at 409 W. Ferguson St. in Tyler and 215 W. Margaret St. in Lindale. For information and hours, visit bethesdaclinic.org.

NET Health (Northeast Texas Public Health), located 815 N. Broadway Ave. in Tyler. For information and hours, visit www.mynethealth.org.

Gregg County Health Department, located at 405 E. Marshall Ave. Suite 104 in Longview. For information and hours, visit greggcounty.texas.gov.

Family Circle of Care, located at 2990 N. Broadway Ave., 214 E. Houston St., and 13172 State Hwy 64 East, Suite 8 in Tyler. The Glenwood location – 928 N. Glenwood Blvd. in Tyler – offers Obstetrics & Gynecology services, specifically. There are also locations in Athens and Jacksonville. For information and hours, visit www.tylercircleofcare.org.

Special Health Resources, located at 4519 Troup Highway and 1300 Clinic Dr. in Tyler and 409 N. Sixth St. in Longview. For information and hours, visit www.specialhealth.org.