March 4, 2020

The Horrifying Stories Behind Louisiana’s Clinic Law

Markethia Clark will never forget that day. Looking across the table at a young lawyer named Mike Johnson, she shudders. “It was unusually bad,” she told him. Denise had been the last patient of the night, so everyone was tired and anxious go home. Markethia wasn’t in the surgery room when the screaming started. Looking at her coworkers in horror, they froze. “We were all alarmed,” she said, “because screaming out loud like that is unusual.” The abortion, they knew, had gone terribly wrong. But calling an ambulance, the doctor barked, was out of the question.

Markethia Clark will never forget that day. Looking across the table at a young lawyer named Mike Johnson, she shudders. “It was unusually bad,” she told him. Denise had been the last patient of the night, so everyone was tired and anxious go home. Markethia wasn’t in the surgery room when the screaming started. Looking at her coworkers in horror, they froze. “We were all alarmed,” she said, “because screaming out loud like that is unusual.” The abortion, they knew, had gone terribly wrong. But calling an ambulance, the doctor barked, was out of the question.

Denise survived because her mom rushed her to the hospital. About three months later, when lawyers and state officials started sniffing around the case, the doctor, Leroy Brinkley, ordered his staff to “fabricate some records to make it look like everything was done properly.” “We made [them] up," Markethia admitted. It was the last she or anyone else knew of the case. But it wasn’t the end of the nightmares.

When the inspectors came, Sandra Price said, "We stalled them” while other employees “quietly gathered together the unsterilized hoses and re-packaged cannulas (labeled ‘For One Use Only’) and hid them… The only things they looked at were what we voluntarily showed them.” Like a lot of abortion centers, Delta Women’s Health was filthy. The equipment was so disgustingly dirty, Markethia testified, that the “dilators had dried crusted blood down in the crevices of the numbers engraved on the side… The surgical tools were so rusted that if you rubbed your hand down it, it would leave a rusty, orange streak on your palm. Those were the same tools used on Denise and all the other girls at the clinic.” There was “dried up blood on the floor, in the old recliners in the recovery room, and rust on the insides of the surgical trays,” she shakes her head.

Louisiana’s Brinkley, it turns out, was quite a fan of Kermit Gosnell. He even hired the abortion monster to work for him in Delaware (before Gosnell went to prison for killing patients and snipping the spinal cords of perfectly healthy newborns). And the similarities didn’t end there. Brinkley ran his “clinic” in Baton Rouge just like Gosnell's house of horrors. Allyson Tunnard was just 19 when she worked there — and saw things that will scar her for life. She remembers holding down patients who were yelling in pain during late-term procedures, watching how rough and abusive the doctors were, and the day she wasn’t allowed to call 911 when a woman started gushing blood because the abortionist had carelessly sliced through her uterus. “She passed several blot clots as large as my head… but [Dr.] Whitmore refused to let anyone call [an ambulance] because he was afraid the media would find out.” Later, her charts said there had been no complications.

These are the stories that sealed the deal for Louisiana. Mike and I joined forces. In the state legislature, I showed an undercover video of the atrocities taking place behind clinic doors — the stomach-churning, third-world conditions — which, as even the liberal media points out, silenced all the critics. But now, 20 years later, much more needs to be done. Abortion businesses, Delta worker Lisa Teegarden warned, “are much more concerned with making money than with providing safe health care.” And so they’ve found a way around the regulations — putting women’s lives on the line with shoddy care.

Just last March, a young mom — barely 15 weeks pregnant — went into the same Delta Women’s Clinic and had her abortion botched so badly that she had to have a complete hysterectomy, sterilizing her for life. Turns out, when she started bleeding profusely, the nurse went to give her emergency saline — only to find that the crash cart didn’t have any! To her horror, the other medicine she needed to save her life was expired.

When the U.S. Supreme Court convenes Wednesday morning, let’s hope they see these real victims of a ruthless, money-hungry abortion industry. The liberal media will scream that the Louisiana law before these nine justices is about shutting down clinics. It’s not. It’s about forcing an industry that claims to put women first to prove it. If businesses like Delta Women’s Health want to stay open, it’s up to them. They can abide by Act 620 that requires them to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital (which, based on these accounts, they need), or they can refuse to make the changes that protect mothers and close their doors.

The Left will argue that this is about abortion access. But who wants access to an unsafe abortion? We don’t care if it’s “inconvenient” for these businesses to file the paperwork for admitting privileges. We care that women don’t get hurt more. And everyone in this country — liberal or conservative — should too. There’s one casualty from every abortion already. There shouldn’t be two. “Look, I’d love it if the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade,” Rep. Johnson said all those years ago. “That would be the greatest day of my life. But until we can do that, I accept the fact that they can perform abortions legally, and I just want them to do it under the same health and safety standards that any other medical professional has to adhere to.” That’s what we said in 1999, when Mike and I fought for Louisiana first abortion clinic regulation law — and it’s what every justice should say now.

To check out the amicus brief that FRC filed in the case, click here. Also, don’t miss my brand new Washington Times op-ed with that young attorney-turned-congressman, Mike Johnson, “Supreme Court should put a stop to the abortion industry getting a free pass.”

Originally published here.


Can Trump End the Never-Ending War?


They are still coming home in caskets draped with American flags. On a lot of nights, when the transport plane touches down, the president will be there when the bodies make their final trip to U.S. soil, saluting as another son or daughter passes by. It’s a horrible thing to watch, as President Trump did in February, a mother break free from the family tent and run to the metal ramp, wailing. One word is usually unmistakable: “No!”

“I go out to Dover, and I have to — I meet the parents,” the president has said soberly. “It’s the most unpleasant thing I do. The most unpleasant thing I do,” he repeated. Javier Jaguar Gutierrez and Antonio Rey Rodriguez were just 28 years old when they were escorted home for the last time. Killed in combat in Afghanistan, they were some of the latest casualties of what feels like a never-ending war. For the families of more than 2,400 dead American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen, the cost is incalculable.

Before Donald Trump stood on the tarmac of Dover Air Force base as president, he promised to end the U.S.‘s lengthy and deadly involvement in countries like Afghanistan. “It is also not our function to serve other nations as law enforcement agencies," he said at last month’s State of the Union. "These are warfighters that we have — the best in the world — and they either want to fight to win or not fight at all. We are working to finally end America’s longest war and bring our troops back home.”

In recent weeks, that plan started to take shape as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the signing of a peace deal with the Taliban. “President Trump has allowed us to take the fight to the Taliban these last two years — and we have done so,” Pompeo explained. “It’s why they, for the first time, have announced that they’re prepared to break with their historically, al-Qaeda, who they’ve worked with much the detriment of the United States of America. You can see or read the document. The Taliban have now made the break. They said they will not permit terror to be thrust upon anyone, including the United States, from Afghanistan.”

On Monday, I talked with FRC’s retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin about the deal and whether we can trust what our enemy says. “First of all,” General Boykin agreed, “I’m glad that the president is really working hard to try and bring this 19-year war to an end.” But, he went on, everyone has to go into this plan with open eyes. “I don’t believe that [President Trump] or Mike Pompeo are under any illusions [that this will be easy]. And… very clearly that this is a process” that, as far as the general is concerned, could involve a “lot of false starts.”

Like a lot of people, the general isn’t incredibly confident that the Taliban will keep up their end of the bargain — which is to end their violence against U.S.-ally forces. “I’m hopeful,” he said, “but quite frankly, I’m also skeptical.”

Obviously, as we discussed, the entire plan is dependent on the Taliban’s behavior, so there are still a lot of questions in the air. How can we trust people who have been our enemy for so long and have acted in such a way that has taken so many lives in such a brutal fashion? Especially when they’re governed by the same ideology that led them to [these attacks] to begin with.

“[H]as their theology changed in this 19 years?” general asked. “No, it hasn’t. It’s the same theology [of that brutal, brutal regime]. Now, the idea that they will break ranks with the ISIS or with al-Qaeda specifically, I think is more than we should expect.” He looked back on 1973 when Henry Kissinger closed a peace deal with the North Vietnamese. “And I’ve got to tell you, I was there at that time. And the last airplane had barely cleared the airspace of Vietnam when the when the North Vietnamese were making a big push down there to take the South Vietnam capital of Saigon. And then ultimately, within two years, they controlled all of Vietnam. I don’t want to see that happen here.”

Fortunately for America, General Boykin pointed out, we’ve got the right president, and “we’ve got the right guy at the helm of the State Department. I don’t think that he is naive in any way — and he’s said it repeatedly in his press conferences: We don’t trust anyone. They’re going to have to meet certain requirements. So I think we’re going to see this drag out for quite a bit longer.”

The president campaigned on ending this conflict, so he wants to make it happen. But the other important thing to remember is, the definition of victory may be different in that region of the world. Afghanistan has been a troubled nation for decades. And the idea of nation state is almost a foreign concept for a tribal land. And that vacuum of leadership in that lawless place is always going to be filled by someone. For now, we wait and see. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put it, “We should welcome any serious opportunity to bring greater stability to this land. But… we must make certain that the progress won through great sacrifice by Afghans and Americans is not undermined by any precipitous rush for the exits.”

Originally published here.


Peace: Netanyahu’s Winning Platform


Donald Trump knows a little about beating the odds. So when his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu called his own reelection “the biggest win” of his life, America’s president could understand. To a raucous crowd, the Israeli prime minister said, “This is a victory against all the odds because we stood against powerful forces. They already eulogized us. Our opponents said the Netanyahu era is over.” They couldn’t have been more wrong.

To a lot of people, CBN’s Chris Mitchell included, this was a historic victory for the prime minister. “Just a few weeks ago,” he told me Tuesday from Tel Aviv, maybe even a few days ago, I don’t think many people expected this kind of victory… [I]t looks like the exit polls are saying 60 seats. But given the momentum right now and the fact that he really has many more seats than the second political party called the Blue and White, it looks very likely that he’ll be able to form that government… [from] the remaining votes that will come in…“ More people, he hopes, from both parties should see this as a decisive victory and want to work with Netanyahu.

For the longtime leader, who’s taken hit after hit for supposed corruption, this fifth term could be a historic one for peace. Since December of 2018, his government has been in a position of simple maintenance. But now, just a couple seats shy of a 61-seat majority in parliament, there are some big issues facing Israel that Netanyahu may finally be able to get to work to try to solve. Including, Chris points out, the Trump administration peace proposal.

”[I]f you don’t have a working government and a prime minister that can make decisions, then that kind of peace proposal would just linger. So now, given the fact that Netanyahu and President Trump have both together unveiled that plan, it looks like those particular instruments or proposals can go forward… Two of the main things would be the possibility of annexing the Jordan Valley that buffer between Israel’s eastern border and parts of Judea and Samarra. Those are two things that are on the table. If he can form a government pretty soon, looks like those things might be on their way to being implemented.“

In fact, Monday night’s outcome — and President Trump’s policies in general — may have been a deciding factor in the elections. Especially, Chris pointed out, where turnout is concerned. The early numbers suggested that this could have been the largest number of ballots cast in decades. "I think a lot of the people in Judea and Samaria or perhaps in the Jordan Valley… in the last election, a lot of them didn’t go to the polls. I think there was an estimate of maybe 200,000 people in that part of Israel [who] didn’t vote… So, I think that particular plan was it was a factor [in getting people out to vote].” For now, he said, “it looks like the relationship between the White House here in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu will continue.” And that’s not just good news for Israel but the entire Middle East.

Originally published here.


This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.

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