"Good afternoon. I'm Jack Marshall, for 16 years a resident of White Hall District in Albemarle County. I've spent my professional life working in international family planning, including eight years with the World Health Organization. Since my retirement I've worked on health and population issues here in my own back yard. Several years ago I chaired a team that produced a strategic plan for teen pregnancy prevention in our area, and I currently sit on the Board of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge.

But I'm speaking to you today as one of hundreds of donors to the new Planned Parenthood facility on Hydraulic Road. My wife and I - and neighbors and friends - are proud to have been part of the broad-based community effort to help meet the reproductive health needs of Central Virginia women, men, and teens.

This building was not built for speculation like some new commercial strip mall. Planned Parenthood has worked as a non-profit organization in our community for over a decade, so we know what kind of educational, counseling, and health care services area residents want and need. This new building was carefully designed to meet those needs.

Not a penny for this new facility came from government funds, nor are any of the costs of operating the center supported by tax dollars. This building was planned and financed by local volunteers -- mostly folks from Albemarle County and Charlottesville - many of us here in this room now. We're retirees and housewives, working teachers and nurses and small business owners, Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. We've contributed money and time because we know that people - especially younger women - sometimes lack access to the information and health care they need to make and implement responsible decisions about having a baby, or about avoiding or treating sexually transmitted diseases.

Half of all pregnancies in America are unintended. We who support this new center are morally committed to helping avoid lives ruined by unintended pregnancies, helping reduce the number of unwanted children, helping prevent women's deaths from unsafe abortions.

Just as funding for the building comes from a broad-based group of local community members, so too do the clients served in this facility represent a broad spectrum of local residents: all races and religions and ages, from young teens to women in their 60's and 70's who need annual gynecological exams; from women who have full insurance coverage to those who can't afford to pay anything for health care. I want to emphasize that despite the opposition of a visible minority, Planned Parenthood represents a cross-section of this community. Though some might consider it an inconvenient fact, it is the wives and sisters and daughters of all of us in this room who need and use Planned Parenthood services.

As you know, the effort to close this facility, disingenuously hidden in the guise of concern about legal and zoning issues, is part of an orchestrated extra-legal effort to reduce the accessibility of abortions in our area. Indeed, the tactic of manipulating local zoning ordinances is spelled out in chapter 56 of this book, "Closed: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion," a well known resource in anti-abortion circles. Our opponents' appeal of Planned Parenthood's Certificate of Occupancy is identical to their unsuccessful attempts to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of the Falls Church Women's HealthCare Center in 2002.

I resent the implication of those who would close this facility that their values are somehow more righteous than mine. Their moral stance should not trump that of the majority of residents in our community who support the Planned Parenthood mission and who will continue to turn to this facility for education and counseling and health services.

Thank you for you attention. I trust that you will reject this appeal." (Jack Marshall, electronic mail, November 9, 2004)