Many Illinois abortion clinics had gone without inspection for many years until recently -- and that only happened after extensive media attention to a filthy Rockford abortion facility.
State officials subsequently inspected nine abortion clinics, two of which were deemed so unsafe and unsanitary that emergency license suspensions were issued. One will remain closed because of an inability to find staff willing to work there.
Bill Beckman of Illinois Right to Life Committee explains why it had been about 15 years since the state's abortion clinics had been inspected.
"There was this agreement when we had a pro-abortion attorney general back in the '90s that effectively left, for all intents and purposes, the regulation of abortion clinics as pretty much an opened-ended thing," he tells OneNewsNow.
Oddly enough, not all abortion clinics fall under state scrutiny. Beckman explains.
"One of the very curious regulations that is affecting this is that if less than 50 percent of your business is abortions, you don't even need to be licensed by the state," he says. "So Planned Parenthood falls under that window. They are not licensed by the state of Illinois at all, never get inspected, and never could even be thought about being inspected."
State health officials say they lack the resources to do the inspections, but Beckman says they are just hiding behind that as an excuse for not moving on the clinics. The pro-lifer expects there will be a push in the legislature to change current laws.
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
