What can happen when a delivery to a women’s health clinic in Austin doesn’t follow protocol? Today we found out when the Austin Police Department blocked off the Whole Woman’s Health on North Interstate 35. It happened after clinic staff found two envelopes taped to two different doors of the facility early this morning.
"We have protocols for bomb threats," says Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health. "It sort of goes with the nature of the medicine that we practice. A lot of people have pretty strong feelings about it. So our safety is something that we…we train staff."
Staff of the Austin Whole Woman's Health clinic alerted authorities after seeing what they thought were suspicious packages. A similar situation occurred at the company's San Antonio location today as well.
Lieutenant Katrina Pruitt with Special Operations says they turned out to be legal documents and she says they shouldn’t have been delivered this way.
"We’ll ask them not to do that, to call the business ahead of time and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to be dropping off some paperwork’" Pruitt said. "It’s just to make them feel safe and not put them on alert."
The Austin Police bomb squad worked with the Austin Fire Department’s HazMat team to check for any hazardous substance. They didn’t find any in the envelopes. Then the materials were turned over to the Austin Regional Intelligence Center to determine who delivered the documents.
