Planned Parenthood execs suspect arson after suspicious fire at site of new facility in New Orleans

Fire investigators are taking a hard look at suspicious fire at an under-construction Planned Parenthood facility in New Orleans that will be the first in the state to offer abortions, reports the Times-Picayune.

According to authorities, firefighters responded to a burning car within the gates of the locked construction site at 3:45 a.m Saturday morning that was extinguished without causing too much damage.

Melissa Flournoy, director of Planned Parenthood Louisiana, said that the new location would be the first to offer abortions as well as "more than double the amount of life-saving cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, contraception and other high-quality, affordable health care" in greater New Orleans.

Flournoy suspects arson, calling it another assault "expanded access to reproductive health care."

Planned Parenthood has been under siege of late, with anti-choice activists distributing a series of misleading videos accusing the reproductive healthcare giant of illegally selling fetal tissue.  On Monday, Senate conservatives failed to get the sixty votes needed to move a bill to the floor to defund Planned Parenthood.

Failure to once again stop taxpayer funding of the healthcare provider may portend another wave of terror against abortion providers that has seen Planned Parenthood facilities firebombed and doctors who offer abortions services murdered.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced on Monday that the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals will terminate its Medicaid provider contract with Planned Parenthood.

Flournoy said the move by the unpopular Jindal would be "taking away health care services for the 2.7 million women, men and young people who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers each year for basic health care" with no plan in place to meet the needs of Louisianans.