The Patriot Post® · Report Exposes U.S. Abortion Clinics as Filthy and Unsafe

One of the most oft-asked questions regarding politics is why the two sides can’t find a way to compromise on controversial issues. In some cases, the answer to that question is that the two sides are diametrically opposed in ways that are nearly impossible to reconcile. One such issue is abortion.

During the time of Roe v. Wade, the pro-abortion crowd claimed it wanted abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare,” arguing that legalized abortion would save the lives of an estimated 10,000 women each year who were dying in “back-alley” abortions, a claim later be debunked by the abortionist who made it, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of NARAL, who performed more than 75,000 abortions before becoming a staunch pro-lifer.

Since Roe, almost 60 million innocent, unborn children have been slaughtered in the womb in the U.S., justified by the Orwellian phrase “a woman’s right to choose.”

Abortion has seen a decline in recent years, dropping 21% from 2004-2013. There are a number of reasons for this, including access to contraception, the success of conservative state legislatures in passing laws providing regulations and restrictions on abortion, demographic shifts, etc. One of the most notable but rarely mentioned reasons is that the much-maligned Millennial generation, currently in the prime child-bearing age range of 19-35, is far more pro-life than their parents, with more than half polled stating their belief that abortion is morally wrong.

Other reasons surely include the amazing technological advances that allow mothers to see 3-D images of their developing children in the womb, and revulsion at the horrific stories of Planned Parenthood clinics exposed for killing unborn children in order to sell their body parts. (A heinous act for which the Senate Judiciary Committee just this week recommended criminal charges.)

So, while abortion has long been legal, and while it is slowly becoming more rare (relatively speaking, anyway), the one thing that can NOT be said of abortion is that it is safe; certainly not for the child, for which abortion results in a 100% chance of brutal death; but neither is it safe for the mother in far too many cases.

In 2013, Americans captured a glimpse into the reality of abortion clinics in America, when Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell was tried and convicted on first-degree murder charges for severing the spinal cords of three infants that survived his botched abortion attempts.

What the police found when they went to arrest Gosnell and collect evidence was horrifying beyond belief. (WARNING: Graphic description follows.) In addition to allowing unlicensed, untrained technicians to administer anesthesia, the clinic itself was filthy and unsafe. One report described how “Gosnell kept aborted babies’ feet in jars and fetal parts in the staff lunch refrigerator. He used surgical equipment stained with dried blood without bothering to sterilize it. The clinic was filthy and in disrepair, and emergency exits were bolted shut.” One of the officers on the scene testified of how he plunged a clogged toilet only to have dismembered body parts of aborted babies come floating to the top.

A recent report entitled “Unsafe: How the Public Health Crisis in America’s Abortion Clinics Endangers Women” reveals that some of the Gosnell clinic horrors are the rule, not the exception, in America’s abortion industry.

The report exposes how abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood place the pursuit of profits over the safety of the mothers. A recent National Review article notes, “The report documents that in Texas alone, at least 17 abortion providers have recently been cited by state officials for violations of health and safety standards, including, ironically, five clinics operated by Whole Woman’s Health, the lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case. Evidence collected from 32 states on hundreds of abortion clinics and dozens of individual abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood facilities, proves that the practice of abortion has devolved into the ‘red light district’ of American medicine and is populated by substandard providers. Unsafe is … the tip of the proverbial iceberg, aptly demonstrating a nationwide pattern of abuse that characterizes an industry fighting to keep profits high and standards low.”

The Supreme Court case referenced was Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, in which the Supreme Court earlier this year struck down Texas’ common sense laws requiring abortion clinics to follow surgical safety standards and maintain admitting privileges to local hospitals in case an abortion went wrong and the life of the mother was at risk. Writing with the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer argued that would not “have helped even one woman obtain better treatment” and that “abortions taking place in an abortion facility are safe.” This report exposes that claim as an abject lie.

Breyer continued, arguing that “Gosnell’s behavior was terribly wrong. But there is no reason to believe that an extra layer of regulation would have affected that behavior. Determined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations…” This is the same Supreme Court Justice that has argued to uphold virtually every restriction on the actual constitutional right to own and possess a gun, even when the supposed benefit is only theoretical, or has even been debunked.

The majority concurred with the district court’s reasoning that “separating soiled utility and sterilization rooms; and regulating air pressure, filtration, and humidity control” would not reduce abortion-related infections because “the natural opening of the birth canal is itself not sterile.” In other words, a woman’s birth canal is so filthy that implementing the same protocols required to, say, remove tonsils, is unnecessary.

“Unsafe” documents nearly 800 major health code violations just since 2008, with the “most common violations found in America’s abortion clinics include failing to ensure a safe and sanitary environment, allowing unqualified staff to provide care to patients, utilizing expired medications and medical supplies, failing to purchase and maintain necessary equipment, refusing to adopt and follow internal health and safety protocols, and failing to comply with physical-plant standards.”

Rabidly pro-abortion progressives cheered the Supreme Court ruling, and literally celebrated in the streets. In doing so they made clear for all to see that they not only do not care about the life of the unborn child being murdered, but they do not even care about the life of the mother that abortion supposedly enhances. No, all they care about is the unrestricted, legal and taxpayer-funded “right” to destroy the most innocent of all life.

And they’re willing to let women suffer and, in some cases, die to preserve that “right.”