Washington Planned Parenthood Overlooks Abortion Safety Standards for Women
by Dan Kennedy
May 21, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: Dan Kennedy is the executive director of Human Life of Washington, a statewide pro-life group.
Patient safety takes a back seat when it’s abortion.
The Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission (MQAC) has proposed rules mandating that physicians who perform any invasive procedure requiring sedation in a non-hospital setting must meet certain safety standards. They list, among other requirements, that the office be accredited by one of several recognized accrediting bodies, such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, CMS, etc.
That is, unless the invasive procedure happens to be abortion. In that case Planned Parenthood or the National Abortion Federation can simply certify that things are A-OK.
And we know how much we can count on those entities to make sure that only the highest standards of patient safety are followed, and that any facility failing to meet those high standards will immediately have its certification revoked.
This kind of blatant exception for the abortion lobby should make all of us angry–no matter your position on abortion.
I have excerpted the appropriate section below, plus the link from which it came (you can also get it from MQAC). The public has until May 25th to comment on these rules and there is a public hearing on them June 3rd.
This rule applies to physicians practicing independently or in a group setting who perform office-based surgery employing one or more of the following levels of sedation or anesthesia:
(a) Moderate sedation or analgesia; or (b) Deep sedation or analgesia; or(c) Major conduction anesthesia.
(5) Accreditation or certification. Within three hundred sixty-five calendar days of the effective date of this rule, a physician who performs a procedure under this rule must ensure that the procedure is performed in a facility that is appropriately equipped and maintained to ensure patient safety through accreditation or certification and in good standing from one of the following:
(a) The Joint Commission; (b) The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care; (c) The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory
Surgery Facilities; (d) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; or (e) In lieu of accreditation or certification by one of the above-listed entities, facilities limiting office-based surgery to abortions or abortion-related services may be accredited or certified by either the Planned Parenthood Federation of America or the National Abortion Federation.
Patient safety should come first. Subsection (e) is not a medical assessment, but a blatant political exception.
You can respond online against these false standards no later than 5-25-10:
https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/policyreview/AddComment.aspx?ID=613
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