The cries are deafening. It’s the abortion industry demanding that its clinics remain open, no matter what laws they may have broken.
“Access” is king and should be met regardless of a woman’s location or financial means. If a woman wants an abortion, she should be able to get one, even if that means going to an abortion clinic that is unregulated or has failed multiple health inspections. This is the unflinching position of an industry that makes over a billion dollars a year ending innocent lives and wreaking havoc on the health of women in the process.
This is exactly what is happening in Missouri right now at the last abortion clinic left in the state, a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis. It has a lengthy history of citations from the state health department from inspection reports dating back to 2009. Infractions include the failure to sterilize instruments used from woman to woman, and the use of expired medications (some over six years past their expiration). To put it bluntly, this place is gross. The state is investigating it right now over “multiple” reports of failed abortions and mishandling of fetal tissue.
Imagine if a restaurant was cited for failing to wash cutlery or serving meat past its expiration on a regular basis. It would be shut down in a heartbeat. If the restaurant owners cried that patrons had a right to eat where they want, and that therefore the establishment should be remain open and operable, the state would laugh at them.
But that’s exactly Planned Parenthood’s argument in court. So far, it has convinced a federal judge to let this clinic stay open, violations be damned.
In South Bend, Ind., the home of the University of Notre Dame, Whole Woman’s Health has been fighting to open an abortion facility for months. They have been denied a license to operate but just won the right to open after a federal judge bought the argument that there is an “unmet demand” for abortion in South Bend and the surrounding areas. The clinic will operate without a license and be an unregulated entity.
Two things about this decision are alarming. First, women and their unborn children are now a commodity for abortion providers, an “unmet demand” that only abortion clinics can fill. Second, it is now OK to provide healthcare solely based on demand, neglecting quality. The owners of these facilities may skirt rules and regulations and will continue to put women’s lives at risk.
This is a shortcut, and women deserve better than a pop-up clinic.
Whole Woman’s Health is a chain of abortion clinics in Texas and the Midwest. They are very familiar with health and safety violations and are likely thrilled to be out from under the thumb of Indiana’s Department of Health. WWH clinics in Texas have been cited for failing to document the disinfecting and sterilizing of instruments used from woman to woman. There is no way of knowing if they did it correctly or put women at extreme risk of infections and severe complications. Other WWH clinics were found to have rust on their suction machines, which could cause infection; to have failed to ensure a safe and sanitary environment; to have a stash of expired medications and supplies on their emergency cart; and even to have a hole in the cabinet flooring that had “the likelihood to allow rodents to enter the facility.”
Most abortion clinics know when the health inspector is coming, and yet Whole Woman’s Health still couldn’t clean up their act. In Indiana, just imagine what the environment will be like for woman walking into that clinic who may be vulnerable, scared, and out of options. They may walk in for an abortion but walk out with a preventable infection, or worse.
For the abortion industry, common health and safety regulations meant to protect patients are merely obstacles to raking in the cash. They see women and their unborn babies as dollar signs and will go to any lengths to make sure their clinics stay open, even if it means sacrificing basic health and safety to make it happen.
The judges that allow this sideshow to continue are just as much at fault. They tell the abortion industry that it is above the law, that it alone doesn’t have to follow the rules to which other medical facilities are bound. Both Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health are arguing to the courts that access to abortion trumps the law, that they shouldn’t be held to health and safety standards if they interfere with access to abortion. Regulations exist for a reason. Given the frankly disgusting track record of both these abortion providers, judges who allow the clinics to operate in this way are intentionally letting them shove women aside for the sake of profit.
Abby Johnson is founder and director of And Then There Were None, author of Unplanned and The Walls Are Talking.
