Bethany Bump is reporting for the Times Union Planned Parenthood has opened a new health center in Troy. The new facility is located on Hoosick St. in a former Peebles department store in the Hudson River Commons Plaza. The 6,720-square-foot space is approximately one-third larger than Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood’s previous Troy center, which was located in the Hendrick Hudson Building on Broadway. “We really needed more space and unfortunately we couldn’t expand at all in the space where we previously were,” said Chelly Hegan, president and CEO of the Upper Hudson affiliate. The new space has room for a surgical abortion clinic — a service that could not be offered at the previous center due to space constraints, she said. It also has room for a shared teen space and community room, which will allow the organization to host more education and community programming. The new center is located on a bus line with parking nearby, and it should be easier and safer to access than the old one, Hegan said. Because it is located in a private shopping plaza, anti-abortion protesters who routinely show up at Planned Parenthood clinics will no longer be able to protest near the patients, she said. The new clinic has been named the Opalka Center for Reproductive Health and Education in honor of Chet and Karen Opalka, major donors who helped to finance the center, Hegan said. The new center was also funded by grants from the state Department of Health and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Consortium of Abortion Providers. The clinic officially opened last week. Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood also has locations in Albany and Hudson. Read the full story in the Times Union.