Planned Parenthood Faces Investigation After Botching Multiple Abortions

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 17, 2013   |   3:07PM   |   Dover, DE

Delaware state officials announced today they have launched an investigation of a Planned Parenthood abortion business in Delaware that was closed over multiple botched abortions at the clinic.

The state Division of Professional Regulation has launched the probe into the conduct of several staff members, the agency confirmed late yesterday.

As LifeNews has reported, the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic has experienced five botched abortion emergencies in less than five weeks. Since then, one abortionist and two employees have left Planned Parenthood in Wilmington, Delaware, as a result of the scandal.

According to the Planned Parenthood website, surgical abortions will be referred to “another provider” but the abortion drug will still be sold to women while the probe continues.

A local news report indicated the abortion business welcomes the investigation:

“In the last several days several state health agencies have conducted inspections,” Planned Parenthood Delaware CEO Ruth Lytle-Barnaby said in a written statement Tuesday evening. “PPDE is committed to high quality healthcare, we welcome oversight in the interest of ensuring safety and wellness, and we take swift action when any of our operations do not meet the highest standards.”

Surgical abortions have been halted for now at the Wilmington and Dover offices, Lytle-Barnaby said, but outpatient medical abortions continue at both sites. Training for new staff is under way, she said.Investigators were unable to substantiate complaints made against Planned Parenthood last fall, according to James Collins, director of the Division of Professional Regulation, but more recent complaints from several sources triggered the new inquiry.

In addition to the regulatory review, Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the state Division of Public Health, according to Jill Fredel, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Services. That process will include an examination of equipment, medications, cleanliness, whether materials used were past their expiration date and related conditions.Last month, Planned Parenthood paid a $3,060 fine – reduced from $5,100 – in an informal settlement with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for two violations related to blood-borne pathogens. One violation was related to employee training, another – considered serious – was related to employee exposure to contaminated needles.

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. “Planned Parenthood needs to close its doors, it needs to be cleaned up, the staff needs to be trained.”

Werbrich alleges conditions inside the facility were unsanitary. “He didn’t wear gloves,” said Werbrich. She also worried that that women could be at risk of contracting hepatitis or AIDS.

She didn’t refer to anyone by name, but records indicate the medical director for Planned Parenthood is Eric Schaff. According to one web site:

Medical Director Eric Schaff took home $100,000 in 2006 ( here)

In 1997, Dr. Schaff was trained by Planned Parenthood of New York City in surgical abortion. “I felt inadequate because I had to rely on other physicians for medication abortion complications. Since I learned these surgical skills, I feel empowered as a clinician because I can provide complete reproductive healthcare.”

The clinic was closed to patients recently as it underwent a “routine cleaning.”

“This is the same behavior of cover-up that Kermit Gosnell engaged in. After Karnamaya Monger was killed during an abortion, he had the clinic cleaned and painted. But it didn’t take long before it was back to its previous squalid condition,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue.

Sullenger said Gosnell’s clinic also subjected women to dirty surgical instruments and made them lay on bloody, abortion tables that were not cleaned between patients, just as the Planned Parenthood clinic has done. In fact, Gosnell spread venereal disease between patients through this dangerous practice, just the thing feared by the two former Planned Parenthood nurses.

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“This is another example of how the conditions described at Gosnell’s House of Horrors exist as a matter of routine in abortion clinics around the country,” said Sullenger.

Mary Peterson of the Delaware Department of Health and Services indicated that they rarely inspect abortion clinics in that state. “I’m not going to lie to you, we don’t have the manpower to do routine inspections,” she said.

“As long as the authorities neglect their duty to protect the public, these kinds of horrific conditions will continue to endanger women at Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics there,” said Sullenger. “Protecting the public health is the primary duty of the Department of Health. It’s unbelievable that it could claim it is incapable of doing its job. It sounds like there needs to be a housecleaning at the Department of Health as well as the abortion mill.”