Virginia City Votes to Sell $1.2 Million Property to Planned Parenthood for $10

Virginia’s capital city this week voted to give Planned Parenthood a $1.2 million property for use as an abortion clinic. Critics say the city’s gift of the property—which is situated just steps away from a middle school—could violate its own rules.

The Richmond City Council on Monday agreed to sell the acre of land, which holds an abandoned public school building, to the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood for just $10.

But as the Founding Freedoms Law Center’s Josh Hetzler observed in a July 19 letter to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney (D.), the city council did not follow the process for land sales outlined in Richmond City Code Section 8-58. That section states that the council must first vote to declare the property in question “surplus,” and then entertain competing bids. As the council did neither of those things, the Planned Parenthood deal was “unlawful,” Hetzler says.

The law only allows the city to give away property in this manner if it was blighted, Hetzler added.

“The property, however, has not been designated as ‘blighted’ in any sense. Therefore, the City has no authority whatsoever to sell the property to anyone for a nominal sum,” he said.

Marty Jewell, a former city council member, says the Planned Parenthood sale also violates a rule stipulating that surplus property should be sold to support local schools.

“You’re giving away a building for $10? This makes no sense,” he told the council Monday night.

The council claimed it received an “unsolicited offer” from the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood for the property. But according to Hetzler, Planned Parenthood suggested that “Mayor Stoney’s administration worked with us to identify property.” Stoney is widely seen as a potential gubernatorial hopeful.

Just 10 citizens spoke out in favor of the Planned Parenthood sale at Monday’s council meeting, while 40 opposed the deal. The council voted to approve the sale, anyway. 

Hetzler was among those who spoke at the meeting.

“You will likely be sued over this,” he warned the council. “Save the city the expense and time and embarrassment, and go through the process as you should by law.”

One opponent noted that Richmond already has five abortion clinics, while another objected to the planned facility’s proximity to local schools.

“In front of that park is going to be an 11,000 square foot abortion clinic,” she said.

“I find it jarring that a clinic such of this is being opened not only in close proximity to my home, but where so many children go to school,” said a third resident, who is 39 weeks pregnant.

Another speaker proposed that the council “put forth a resolution in honor of the mayor and city council’s commitment to child sacrifice.”

Supporters of the sale included a woman wearing a COVID mask who boasted that she had received an abortion from Planned Parenthood.

But even she conceded that the sale price was shockingly low.

“Planned Parenthood could probably afford to pay a good deal more,” she said. “By all means, charge for the land.”