Our Knoxville health center was destroyed on New Year's Eve. While Planned Parenthood staff were home with their families, and our community celebrated the end of a very difficult year — someone started a fire.

We were on the verge of opening a new health center in Knoxville — a warm, welcoming new facility to deliver the best possible care for our community. In hours, the flames consumed what has taken years to build. Will you help us recover from this devastating loss? Make your emergency gift today and it will be matched, up to a total of $250,000, to help rebuild the Knoxville health center.

The fire was a tragedy, and it was no accident. Investigators have determined that it was set intentionally. This was arson, a direct attack on the Planned Parenthood community.

This was an effort to cut patients off from care, and we won't be able to do our jobs until we can rebuild. With your help, that work will happen quickly.

Our immediate concern is for our patients — we provide over 4,000 visits each year to people who depend on the Knoxville health center. They trust us to be there for contraception, STI testing and treatment, and more. More than 700 of our patient visits are for gender-affirming hormone care, many from people who travel from far away, where they have no other options for this care.

We're doing all we can to continue to serve patients during this difficult time. We're providing contraceptive refills and gender-affirming hormone care via telehealth. We're referring patients to other providers where we can. And we're looking into temporary space, mobile clinics — whatever it takes.

Our promise remains: Care, no matter what. Will you make an emergency gift to help us keep that promise? Give now and your gift will be matched, up to a total of $250,000.

If the arsonist hoped to deter us from our mission to provide the best possible care to the people of Knoxville, they failed. If they thought that we would give up on the patients who are counting on us, they were wrong.

I believe that the Planned Parenthood community — not just here in Knoxville, but across the country — will overcome this disaster. Will you be a part of that recovery?

Please, make a special gift today to help fund our rebuilding efforts.

This is an alarming time for those of us who believe that everyone deserves sexual and reproductive health and rights. Earlier last year, someone fired a shotgun through the front windows of the same health center that was burned down on New Year's Eve. Every day, lawmakers are escalating their attacks on abortion access. And the need in our community just keeps growing.

I am grateful for my colleagues — the medical professionals and support staff who will do whatever it takes to serve our patients. I am inspired by the courage of this community, coming together in such a painful time. And I am hopeful — always — that things will get better because I know how many people out there are with us.

Please, help us recover as quickly as possible so we can once again open our doors and welcome the patients who are counting on us.

On behalf of all of us here at the Knoxville health center, and the entire Planned Parenthood community, thank you.

Ashley Coffield, CEO
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi