Following a routine inspection—the first since 2006– the Femcare abortion clinic in Asheville, North Carolina has had its license suspended. It is the third North Carolina abortion clinic to have sanctions imposed in just a matter of months.
“In April, state health officials revoked the license of A Preferred Woman’s Health Center on Latrobe Drive in Charlotte,” according to the News Observer’s Jim Morrill and Karen Garloch. “Last month they shut down The Baker Clinic for Women in Durham. The Charlotte clinic has since been allowed to reopen. It’s unclear whether the Durham clinic is back in business.” Investigators found dead insects, blood splatters and dirty surgical instruments inside the Durham abortion clinic.
According to a statement from the state DHHS office inspectors found “egregious violations of existing rules that revealed an imminent threat to the health and safety of patients.” Femcare failed to meet 23 separate rules.
“We take rule violations very seriously and, when necessary, take firm action to prevent harm to patients and clients in the facilities that we license, regulate and inspect,’ said Drexdal Pratt, director of DHHS’ Division of Health Service Regulation.
The 49-page report found (according to The Citizen Times) that the clinic failed to:
• Maintain anesthesia (nitrous oxide gas) delivery systems in good working condition, with torn masks and tubing held together with tape;
• Ensure emergency equipment had weekly checks to ensure the equipment was suitable for use in patient care and failed to ensure that emergency medicine wasn’t expired;
• Have a resuscitator available;
• Sweep and mop the operating room floor and failed to properly clean operating room beds;
• Have a director of nursing responsible and accountable for all nursing services;
• Have an agreement or contract with an anesthetist or anesthesiologist; and
• Have an agreement or contract with a registered pharmacist to assure appropriate methods, procedures and controls for obtaining, dispensing and administering drugs.
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A new bill signed into law this week by Gov. Pat McCrory included a provision to mandate that abortion clinics must meet requirements similar to but not identical to those required of ambulatory surgical centers. All three of these suspensions took place before new standards could be written.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in his National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
