Today, Planned Parenthood is closing its Houston, Texas abortion facility that was the biggest abortion center in North America.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast announced in July that it would close two Houston-area abortion centers, including its 78,000-square-foot Prevention Park facility, once the largest abortion center in the Western Hemisphere.
That closing will happen today and hundreds, if not thousands, of pro-life Texans will be on hand to celebrate. The Houston Coalition for Life is hosting two special vigils today.
“The events will both honor the lives lost to abortion within the building and celebrate the closure of Planned Parenthood’s Prevention Park location,” it tells LifeNews.
The Roses of Remembrance Vigil will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will be led by Fr. Lawrence Jozwiak, Pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
“This memorial service will honor the estimated 110,000+ unborn children lost to abortion in this building since it opened in May 2010. In a moving tribute, for every year the facility was in operation, a child born in that year will place a rose on the sidewalk to signify the lives lost in their birth year. With each rose, a bell will toll in remembrance,” the group said.
“At 12:00 p.m., the Celebration of Life Vigil will take place, led by Rev. Dr. Laurence White of Our Savior Lutheran Church, to commemorate the closing of Planned Parenthood’s Prevention Park location. We encourage you to come by anytime as we will have a peaceful presence there all day,” the pro-life group added.
With Texas having banned abortions for a few years now, and President Trump signing the bill to defund the abortion giant, its two main sources of funding have dried up.
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Shawn Carney, CEO of the pro-life group 40 Days for Life, expressed “both personal and professional elation” at the shuttering of the Prevention Park and Southwest centers, noting the mega-facility’s closure as a significant blow to Planned Parenthood’s operations.
“This is massive news for the pro-life movement and shows the direction that Planned Parenthood is going, which is down,” Carney said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
He highlighted the facility’s history, stating that 40 Days for Life has prayed and held vigils outside the Houston mega-facility since 2006, offering alternatives like free ultrasounds.
“Countless people have gone out, offered alternatives. We’ve had pro-life buses outside to do free ultrasounds,” he said, adding that the “behemoth” facility once provided late-term abortions.
The closures reflect broader challenges for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which cited “rising costs, staffing shortages and low reimbursement rates” as driving forces behind the restructuring.
Melaney Linton, president of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, called the decision “heartbreaking, infuriating, and the direct result of these sustained political attacks,” pointing to decades of coordinated efforts by GOP officials to dismantle the organization through abortion bans, Medicaid exclusions, and funding cuts.
“Having to reduce PPGC’s future footprint in Houston is heartbreaking,” Linton said.
Pro-life advocates argue the closures demonstrate the vulnerability of Planned Parenthood in a post-Roe v. Wade America, where Texas banned abortions after the 2022 Supreme Court decision. Carney noted that the shuttering of the Houston facilities, alongside recent closures in New York, shows that “Planned Parenthood is not a monster that can’t go away.” He argued that when abortions are restricted or alternatives are offered, Planned Parenthood often closes even its most prosperous locations, undermining claims of prioritizing non-abortion care for low-income women.
The Prevention Park facility, opened in 2010 at a cost of $26 million, was a focal point of controversy, with pro-life groups like the Houston Coalition for Life protesting its construction in a predominantly Hispanic and African American neighborhood. Critics, including pastors and pro-life leaders, called it an “abomination” for targeting minority communities and performing abortions, including late-term procedures until restricted by Texas law in 2003. The facility’s closure marks a symbolic win for pro-life activists who have long campaigned against its operations.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which operates six Houston-area clinics and two in Louisiana, will transfer operations of its Spring, Stafford, Northwest, and Northville clinics to the Greater Texas affiliate in October.
