Abortion Centers Correct Problems Following Gosnell Horror

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 27, 2011   |   1:16PM   |   Harrisburg, PA

Pennsylvania abortion centers found to have deficiencies by state officials in the aftermath of national revelations about the horrors at the abortion business Kermit Gosnell ran have finally corrected them.

Three Pittsburgh-area abortion centers — Allegheny Women’s Center in East Liberty, Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, Oakland and Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, Downtown — were found to have issues after state health inspectors examined the centers. The failure by state officials during the administration of pro-abortion Governor Tom Ridge to ensure compliance with health and safety laws is credited as part of the reason Gosnell’s abortion center went so far in killing and injuring women and newborn infants during and after abortions.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper indicates seven western Pennsylvania abortion centers were inspected and three were found to have problems that, state records show, have since been corrected.

Magee-Womens Hospital failed to test “urine protein and sugar” before abortions and officials at the facility told the state on Friday they are now doing the tests correctly.

The Allegheny Women’s Center was found to not have proper equipment readily available to resuscitate patients, did not have a heart rate display monitor that was
checked “for proper function and possible electrical leakage,” and did not have portable oxygen available for use in surgical abortions. The newspaper revealed today that the clinic director, Debra Miller, informed the state on Saturday that the problems have been corrected.

The Planned Parenthood facility was cited for a lack of written evidence that licensed physicians properly supervised nurses in the recovery room following abortions. Kim Evert, the clinic’s director, told the newspaper the problems were corrected promptly with new job descriptions requiring proper supervision.

The public grand jury report that accompanied the charges Gosnell and his staff faced over the woman’s abortion death and infanticide cases — where he snipped the spinal cords of newborn infants purposefully born prematurely so they could be killed — revealed the Pennsylvania Department of Health allowed Gosnell to practice for more than 30 years.

His facility opened in 1979 and regulators ignored warnings of conditions at the abortion center, named the Women’s Medical Society.

Nearly a decade ago, according to legal documents, a former Gosnell employee gave the state’s Board of Medicine a complaint that “laid out the whole scope of his operation: The unclean, unsterile conditions; the unlicensed workers; the unsupervised sedation; the underage abortion patients; even the over-prescribing of pain pills with high resale value on the street.” Yet state evaluators continued to approve the abortion center without requiring or verifying corrective actions.

The grand jury’s report estimated hundreds of babies were probably killed over the years — but elapsed time and destroyed records are preventing a larger prosecution of their deaths.

Gosnell has been charged with eight counts of murder and several of his staff at the abortion center, including his wife and sister-in-law, have been charged as well in the case with assisting in botched abortions, practicing medicine without a license or covering up the actions of those who did. The counts include grisly infanticidesthat involved Gosnell snipping the spines with scissors of babies who had purposefully been prematurely born so they could be killed moments later.

Mongar died November 20, 2009, after overdosing on anesthetics prescribed by the doctor, Williams said. Mongar’s family filed a lawsuit against Gosnell’s abortion business seeking damages.

“We want justice, this doctor has to be out of that clinic or he should not be treating anybody,” Damber Ghalley told CNN. “And the things that happen to my sister, I don’t want to happen to anybody in the future.”

He told CNN “the clinic was so dirty, filthy with blood stains and a dirty floor, everywhere dirty, I cannot describe how dirty it was.”

Gosnell has been denied bail while the case against him moves forward. Women have spoken out about their treatment and one woman says she was drugged and tied up and forced to have an abortion.

Authorities searching the facility last year found bags and bottles holding aborted babies scattered around the building, jars containing babies’ severed feet lining a shelf, as well as filthy, unsanitary furniture and equipment.

The grand jury investigation also shows state officials did nothing when reports came in about problems at Gosnell’s abortion center, which has upset incoming pro-life Governor Tom Corbett.