KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Around two years have passed since a health clinic in the Knoxville area was burned down by a Jefferson City man while it underwent renovations.
Authorities said on the last day of 2021, Mark Reno, then 64 years old, set fire to the Planned Parenthood building located on Cherry Street. By the time crews with the Knoxville Fire Department arrived, flames had breached through the roof — a sign that the fire burned for some time before authorities were alerted.
Reno previously "engaged in a series of violent acts of property destruction" against the health clinic. On Jan. 22, 2021, authorities said he shot an "incendiary projectile" from a shotgun into the entrance of the clinic, on the 48th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. That incident was around a year before he set fire to the building.
Reno died in jail in August 2022, according to authorities.
Before the arson, Planned Parenthood spent more than $2 million renovating the building. It would cost an additional $2 million to rebuild the building from the ground up — something that Planned Parenthood leaders immediately went to work on.
"After the fire, we decided pretty quickly that we wanted to rebuild at the Cherry Street location where we have been for a long time," said Ashley Coffield, the President of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. "We are now about six months away from being completed with the construction project, we hope that we will be open and operational in the summer of 2024."
She said the new building is expected to be more modern than Planned Parenthood's previous one, with an emphasis on being welcoming and inclusive for all patients.
"We hope it's there for many, many years to come," Coffield said. "We saw an outpouring, an outpouring of support from the community from the state and across the country to help us rebuild. It was very energizing and it really lifted our morale to see the kind of support we got from the Knoxville community after the fire."
While Tennessee has effectively banned abortion treatments, Planned Parenthood offers a variety of other kinds of services like gender-affirming care, reproductive health care, HIV services, men's health care and family planning services. After the fire, Planned Parenthood opened a mobile clinic located off Kingston Pike, near Messiah Lutheran Church, to continue treating patients.
In 2023, Planned Parenthood also saw the return of federal Title X funds. With those funds, the healthcare provider can effectively treat low-income patients for free. Coffield said patients just need to provide verbal information about their income and family size to receive services.
All services provided at the mobile health clinic are eligible to be covered under Title X, and Coffield said around 95% of Planned Parenthood patients in Knoxville qualify for services.
Among the variety of services Planned Parenthood provides, they also help patients navigate abortion treatment options in states other than Tennessee.
"In place of abortion services, we are providing what we call 'Abortion Navigation.' And so, if people call us for help, we are able to help you with the logistical challenge of getting the healthcare you need outside of Tennessee, we can help you make those arrangements and, most importantly, we can help you pay for them," said Coffield.
In 2023, Planned Parenthood also launched an app as a way to provide healthcare to rural counties. Through the app, Coffield said they have served patients in 85 counties across the state.
The app is called Planned Parenthood Direct, and it is available on Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store. Through the app, patients can find emergency contraception, UTI treatments, and birth control options. Some medicines can be mailed to patients through the app, too.
Coffield said Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi usually sees around 15,000 patient visits per year. However, the Knoxville clinic saw a decrease in the number of visits because of both the arson and the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the arson, she said the Knoxville clinic served around 4,000 patients a year.
"The Mobile Health Unit is not like having a health center where we can see as many patients as we'd like to see. So we hope those numbers really increase once we're open back up in 2024," she said.