A rather nondescript two-story building sits on the corner of Manor and Pearl streets on the west end of Lancaster, the outer walls featuring a fresh coat of white paint and the parking lot in the rear showing a newly paved surface.
In past years, the building was the site of the Abbey Book & Gift Shop, a Christian-oriented bookstore owned by the late Vonda Kirchner who passed away in 2020. More recently the spot housed the former Patient Care Pharmacy, an independent neighborhood pharmacy that opened in 2017 and closed in 2020.
But according to online searches and statements on websites, the 2,187-square-foot retail spot at 902 Manor Street appears to be the site of a new Planned Parenthood center in Lancaster. The large commercial windows on the front of the building have been bricked closed, reminiscent of other Planned Parenthood clinics in the region, and security cameras have been placed on the corners of the structure.
What remains to be seen is what services the Planned Parenthood center will offer. But according to the services offered page on the Planned Parenthood Keystone website, abortions will be an option.
“Our brand new health center at Lancaster will provide birth control, preventive gynecological exams, STD testing and treatment, emergency contraception, pregnancy testing and options referrals, abortion care, cancer screening and treatment, HIV/AIDS testing, PEP and PrEP for HIV prevention, male services and more,” a statement said on Planned Parenthood Keystone’s website.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood did not return requests for comment on the story.
Background
According to Lancaster County property records, the Manor Street building was sold in January of 2021 by Junior Bencosme to Dallas-based Moric DCO LLC for $365,000. The headquarters for Moric DCO is listed as a UPS Store in a shopping complex in Dallas.
Planned Parenthood last had a physical presence in Lancaster County in May of 2020 at 31 S. Lime St., when it closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The site originally offered birth control, pregnancy testing and other services since the 1970s, but abortions were never conducted there.
Efforts were made in the late-1990s to conduct abortions at the Lime Street location, but community opposition and zoning issues with the building kept any medical procedures from being conducted on site.
According to Lancaster County property records, the Lime Street location was sold by Planned Parenthood Keystone to Symbiosis Property Holdings LLC in November of 2020 for $465,000. The building now houses a location of Lancaster Maternal Fetal Medicine, a Lancaster-based pregnancy care center.
News reports at the time of Planned Parenthood’s Lancaster closing in May of 2020 indicated the organization was searching for a new location.
The local Planned Parenthood’s website featured an updated post in August, stating “Planned Parenthood Keystone will be opening a new health center in Lancaster September 2022.”
A web page that originally directed to Planned Parenthood’s clinic at 1514 N. Second St. in Harrisburg now lists the 902 Manor Street address in Lancaster as its physical location.
Construction at the Manor Street location has been ongoing for several months. A large elevated medical ramp was recently added to the rear entrance of the building. No employees or other individuals were seen entering the building last Friday, but the building includes medical signage inside the rear entrance.
According to the Planned Parenthood website, the Manor Street location will offer in-person abortion, along with primary care, emergency contraception, HIV services, birth control and “transgender hormone therapy.”
The website is currently providing appointments for booking.
“You are welcome to walk in any time the Health Center is open to make an appointment or see if there is a same day appointment available,” the Planned Parenthood website says for the Harrisburg Medical Center of Lancaster, PA. “If you have the time to wait, we will make every effort to fit you in the same day. If we can’t see you, we will give you the first priority appointment available.”
Staff writer Michael Yoder can be reached at michael@thelancasterpatriot.com. Follow @YoderReports on Twitter.
Staff writer Michael Yoder is an award-winning journalist who has been honored with several Keystone Press Awards for his investigative pieces.
