A couple weeks ago, I published a blog post discussing the reality of back-alley abortions 40 years after the legalization of abortion. The fact that abortion "clinics" are allowed to operate virtually unregulated in most states (either as a result of a lack of regulations or lack of enforcement) puts the health and lives of Americans in danger. In light of their demands that abortion be legalized for safety reasons, it is the ultimate form of hypocrisy that abortion advocates refuse to support regulations that would make facilities safer for women.
The Gosnell trial highlights one such horrific instance of a supposed "medical" facility allowed to operate unencumbered by regulation or inspection from 1993 until 2010 when a Federal drug raid revealed far more than prescription drug misuse. Planned Parenthood and others claim this is an isolated incident and that abortion facilities are safe for women. Absent the ability or will to inspect and maintain records on these facilities, how do they know enough to make any statement on the safety of abortion clinics? The fact is that there have been many instances of abortion facilities being reported for unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
Just last week, the Planned Parenthood in Wilmington, Delaware was forced to close its doors when two of its employees reported the facility for violating health and safety standards. As LifeNews.com reported, "Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich and Joyce Vasikonis told WPVI-TV of a 'meat-market style of assembly-line abortions where the abortionist refused to wear gloves, surgical instruments were reused without being cleaned, and bloody drainage remained on abortion tables between procedures, exposing women to blood-borne diseases.' 'It was just unsafe. I can't tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was,' said Mitchell-Werbrich."
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, James Taranto notes that, "Safety is one of the most potent defenses of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that imposed a national policy of abortion on demand." Yet, abortion clinics remain vastly unregulated and unsafe. In Pennsylvania, Gosnell was allowed to operate his "house of horrors" with impunity thanks to irresponsible and unjustifiable policies put in place by former Governor Tom Ridge. As Taranto noted, the grand jury report in the Gosnell case revealed that "Ridge administration officials concluded that inspections would be 'putting a barrier up to women' seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased.'" This refusal by government officials to protect their own citizens is inexcusable and should be properly investigated. Imposing health and safety restrictions on any medical procedure hardly poses a "barrier" to medical care.
Taranto goes on to call the argument that Roe v. Wade made abortion safe for women, a "cruel hoax." It is at the very least a hoax. At the heart of the issue, however, is that the Roe v. Wade "safety" argument served simply an excuse to perpetrate mass killing of "unwanted" or "undesirable" children merely for the sake of selfish convenience. It is time to admit how unsafe abortion really is, to confront the inherent wrongness of Roe, and stop all procedures intended to kill children.
Contact: Anna Higgins
Source: FRCBlog
