Clinical Confusion in a Crisis
It’s the very emergency that governors like Greg Abbott (R-Texas) have been trying to avoid. While hospitals burst at the seams with virus patients, the last thing first responders need is to be called to the scene of a completely avoidable tragedy. And yet, that’s exactly what happened two Saturdays ago thanks to an overflowing abortion clinic in Illinois that was racing through procedures so fast that it botched one.
It’s the very emergency that governors like Greg Abbott (R-Texas) have been trying to avoid. While hospitals burst at the seams with virus patients, the last thing first responders need is to be called to the scene of a completely avoidable tragedy. And yet, that’s exactly what happened two Saturdays ago thanks to an overflowing abortion clinic in Illinois that was racing through procedures so fast that it botched one.
It was one of the rare places the state — and maybe the country — where the parking lot was completely full. The Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City had “packed them in like sardines,” one pro-lifer said, noticing there wasn’t a single parking spot left in the whole place. But for at least one patient, the booming business took a horrible turn when an ambulance pulled in, loaded her onto a gurney, and sped away to a nearby hospital.
This is exactly the scenario state leaders were worried about. Not only are packed waiting rooms a breeding ground for the virus, but abortion clinics aren’t exactly bastions of health and safety. And when the procedures go wrong (as they often do), these women end up in hospitals that are already overwhelmed. For Governor Abbott, John Bel Edwards (R-La.), and others, the whole point behind banning non-essential medical procedures was to spare the country from dilemmas like this one that take up beds we should be using for the current crisis.
None of that seems to matter to groups like Planned Parenthood, who are suing in states like Texas to keep their killing offices open — no matter the cost to their health, their patients’ health, or society’s at large. If a single choir practice, where singers were practicing social distancing and hand-sanitizing, could infect 75 percent, just imagine the outbreak when moms are jammed into clinics that have been exposed to dozens of people a day.
It’s such a serious threat to public health that in Louisiana, Governor Edwards actually launched an investigation to see who’s violating the non-essential order. Headed up by state Attorney General Jeff Landry, he’s sent teams to three abortion clinics to follow up on complaints that these businesses are defying the order and ending pregnancies anyway. These violators, Landry explained, “not only put patients and staff at risk, they also divert much needed [equipment] away from the brave medical professionals currently treating Louisiana’s coronavirus patients.”
Our supply chain, he pointed out, “has been affected by this global pandemic. And, of course, the responsible thing is [to do like a lot of other doctors’ offices have done and] donate their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to nearby hospitals to make sure they have enough to deal with COVID-19.” Dentists seem to understand this, Landry shook his head. Others do too. But “for some reason, the abortion industry believes they’re above the law. That they’re in a different class of health care than everyone else. And you know, it’s really disappointing.”
In places like Baton Rouge and New Orleans, eyewitnesses have reported a lot of traffic in and out of abortion clinics. That’s problematic, Landry argued. “What we want to do is ensure that, again, all health care clinics don’t create a superhighway that is conducive for communicable diseases. We want to ensure that clinics around Louisiana that are operating inside of those executive orders and aren’t doing so in a manner that’s creating an additional public health care crisis inside one already.”
His team is making the same argument in court, where abortion groups have sued to overturn bans on non-essential procedures in states like Texas and Oklahoma. “Health care,” Landry insisted, “is part of the policing power of the state.” There should be no special treatment for abortion, Alliance Defending Freedom President Mike Farris agreed. “The normal rules of law are supposed to apply to everybody equally. And the Fifth Circuit did a great job of saying ‘No, the governor is within his prerogatives here, and is treating you equally…’”
The 10th Circuit Court disagreed, reversing Oklahoma’s hold on abortion and creating a split in appeals that could force the Supreme Court to weigh in. If they do, there’s a big chance the abortion industry won’t like it. The last thing they want is for the justices to rule that abortion isn’t an essential medical procedure — a decision that could haunt them on every case moving forward. “They’re taking a pretty big risk for a very short period of time,” Mike agreed. But unfortunately, the risk isn’t just to them. As long as they keep operating, it’s to everyone
Originally published here.
Evangelical Charity Gets Villain’s Welcome in NYC
When Franklin Graham set up a 68-bed field hospital in the middle New York City’s Central Park, he didn’t hang a sign saying, “Christian Patients Only.” But somehow, the state’s extremists think it’s okay to demand only pro-LGBT caregivers on his staff. Samaritan’s Purse, liberals argue, isn’t tolerant enough to treat the sick. In a tweet so offensive it’s difficult to believe he holds public office, New York State Senator Brad Hoylman (D) said, “It’s a shame that the federal government has left New York with no other choice but to accept charity from bigots.”
What a luxury it must be to criticize people in the trenches, while you sit in the safety of your home. Samaritan’s Purse is risking its volunteers’ lives to be on the front lines, at great expense to the organization, treating whomever the hospital sends them. Do you think these patients, a lot of them in desperate need of help, care who their doctors voted for in the last election? No. They just want to survive — like the other 110,000 people infected in New York City.
If Senator Hoylman is so worried about politically-correct care, then where is his relief effort? The truth is, the only reason he has time to attack Franklin’s virus responders is because his colleagues aren’t on the ground meeting New Yorkers’ needs. But then, that’s what we’ve come to expect from the far Left. These liberal activists are more concerned about their agenda than actual people. We’ve seen it in the adoption debate, the foster care debate, and now in the medical debate. If the choice is between a Christian organization helping someone or the person getting no help at all, we already know what they’d choose: children without homes and patients without care.
To his credit, Franklin fired back at the critics, arguing that now was not “the time or the place to wage this debate.” If the Left wants to stand around pointing fingers while Americans die, that’s their business. But stay out of the church’s.
“Samaritan’s Purse is a decidedly Christian private relief organization, funded almost entirely by individuals around the world who share our passion for providing aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine and persecution — and doing so in Jesus’ Name. It seems tone-deaf to be attacking our religious conviction about marriage at the very moment thousands of New Yorkers are fighting for their lives and dozens of Samaritan’s Purse workers are placing their lives at risk to provide critical medical care.”
It’s true, he said, that his paid staff subscribes to a Statement of Faith, “but we have never asked any of the millions of people we have served to subscribe to anything… [W]e do not discriminate in who we serve. We have provided billions of dollars of medical care and supplies, food and water, and emergency shelter without any conditions whatsoever. Our Christian faith compels us — like the biblical Good Samaritan — to love and serve everyone in need, regardless of their faith or background.”
“In a country that cherishes freedom of speech and religion,” Franklin went on, “we don’t object to opposition or criticism of our beliefs as a Christian organization. What we do object to is being harassed into diverting precious resources of time and energy and personnel away from serving COVID-19 patients in New York City in order to respond to demands for documents and other information from eight Democratic members of Congress, the Human Rights Commission and the Reclaim Pride Coalition — all while the death toll in New York continues to climb. If any of these groups had funded and erected their own emergency field hospitals to serve COVID-19 patients in Central Park, we would join what we believe would be most New Yorkers — and Americans — in applauding and praying for them, not harassing them.”
The coronavirus isn’t a respecter of persons. It doesn’t ask how old you are, how much money you make, or what party you subscribe to. It just attacks. The people caring for these patients — the ones putting their lives on the line to help them — don’t ask questions either. They stand in harm’s way for everyone, no matter who they are. To them, there are far more important things at stake right now than politics. It’s a shame the far-Left doesn’t agree.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
