Planned Parenthood of South Central New York will soon be known by a new name. The affiliate is breaking ties with the national Planned Parenthood organization and creating an independent agency. Our Melissa Kakareka has more.

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SOUTHERN TIER, N.Y. -- The local Board of Directors has been thinking about splitting from the Planned Parenthood name since 2010. That's the year when the Planned Parenthood Federation of America mandated that all of its affiliates must provide abortions by 2013.

After careful consideration of all of the options, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to make the split Monday night. The reason why isn't an issue of morality, but is really just a matter of resources. There are already abortion services easily available in the community. Planned Parenthood officials feel that their limited resources could be better spent on things such as family planning and STD testing.

"We remain 100 percent committed to ensuring that women have the full range of reproductive options. But we are a small agency with limited resources and we do not want to use our limited resources to duplicate services which are already well provided," said Debra Marcus, Chief Executive Officer.

The new agency will be known as Family Planning of South Central New York. Nothing will change, except the name. The new organization will retain all the same staff and services in all five of its offices.

According to a statement from the national Planned Parenthood Federation’s Vice President for Communications, the organization passed this mandate because they want to provide a consistent set of services at all health centers and they say they are committed to making sure abortion services are available at least one health center per Planned Parenthood affiliate within the next couple of years.