Carolina Public Press: Femcare in Asheville for sale, could close

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Jon Elliston, the investigations and open government reporter for Carolina Public Press, has the latest Femcare update:

Western North Carolina’s only provider of abortion services, Femcare, put its property up for sale last week. And a patient of the Asheville women’s clinic tells Carolina Public Press that she was told by a clinic staffer that it will close soon.

According to a real estate listing from a week ago, Femcare’s building, near downtown Asheville, is now for sale for $1.275 million. Dr. Lorraine Cummings, who owns the business and serves as its sole physician, declined to comment on the matter when contacted on Monday.

Femcare provides a number of women’s health services outside of abortions. An Asheville woman who said she has been a gynecology patient of the clinic told Carolina Public Press on Friday that when she recently tried to schedule a return visit, she was told that the clinic was closing and taking no new appointments. Carolina Public Press agreed to withhold her name to protect her confidentiality.

Click over to read the full story.

Last week, Elliston and Carolina Public Press published a story that shed more light on last year’s dramatic closing of Asheville’s abortion clinic, Femcare. Elliston culled through some 30,000 documents the news organization received after at October records request and details how the closure of Femcare coincided with new state rules regarding the clinics, how Gov. Pat McCrory aids worked to spin the story and much more.

Mountain Xpress has Femcare’s statement here.