The busiest abortion business in the state of Virginia is closing, thanks to pro-life laws requiring abortion facilities to meet stricter health and safety standards.
Nova Women’s Healthcare, a Fairfax, Virginia, abortion clinic with a history of botched abortions and at least one patient death, was forced to close after state lawmakers adopted new pro-life laws holding abortion clinics accountable for putting women’s health at risk.
Nova’s lease in its current location was terminated via a lawsuit by the property owners on the grounds that the abortion clinic created a nuisance.
Nova had previously applied for a building permit but was denied because it was one parking space short of compliance with city ordinances. It attempted to reapply as a “Health Spa” to circumvent the need for the additional space, but the city manager saw through the ruse and again denied the application.
As the Washington Post reports:
A women’s health ca
re clinic in Fairfax City that performed more abortions than any other location in Virginia has closed, and it’s unclear whether it will reopen elsewhere.
NOVA Women’s Healthcare was in an office building on Eaton Place, just off Route 123 near Interstate 66, since 2006. Antiabortion protesters stood outside the building daily, the clinic was sued twice in the past three years by its landlord, and it likely faced a need to upgrade or move after Virginia changed its regulations to require abortion providers to have hospital-grade facilities.
After finding a possible alternative space in March, the clinic applied for a nonresidential use permit to retrofit that space in another office building. But the permit was denied in May because officials decided parking at the building was not adequate, zoning administrator Michelle Coleman said.
NOVA chose not to seek a special exception to the parking rules from the city council, Coleman said.
The Fairfax City Council then became aware of the clinic’s attempt to relocate. On Tuesday, the council amended its zoning ordinance to require that all clinics, henceforward to be called medical care facilities, obtain a special-use permit and approval from the council. Previously, clinics were treated the same as doctor’s offices and were not required to go through the city council.
A woman who answered the phone at NOVA Women’s Healthcare said it was closed and, as a policy, staff do not speak to the media. All traces of the clinic are gone from the Eaton Place building, and court records in Fairfax indicate the clinic agreed to relinquish its space in mid-June. Attorney Anthony M. Shore, who represented the clinic in a lawsuit filed by the building’s owner, declined to comment.
Even abortion activists acknowledge that the pro-life laws are working to close abortion clinics.
Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said NOVA “was trying to relocate because they couldn’t stay where they were, because of the new regulations. . . . The fact they were forced to move, that’s a testament to the barriers these providers face.”
NOVA did 3,066 abortions in 2012 and 3,567 in 2011 — making it so this pro-life law putting stricter abortion regulations in place is already saving the lives of thousands of unborn children.
This closure is one of 30 abortion clinics to close in 2013 alone, more than doubling the number of closures over all of last year, says Troy Newman of the pro-life group Operation Rescue.
“With the increased attention on abortion clinic abuses, we are beginning to see a trend toward greater awareness and enforcement. Many of the 30 clinics to close this year have done so due to enforcement measures,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “Others closed due to lack of business, which means the pro-life movement is succeeding at changing the public opinion and behavior toward abortion. In 1991, there were 2,176 surgical abortion clinics in America. After the closure of Nova at the end of this month, there will be only 630 surgical abortion clinics left. While we still have a long way to go to end the barbaric practice of abortion in this nation, we have shown real progress.”
Operation Rescue had publicized a medical emergency at Nova involving a 35-year old diabetic patient suffering from heavy bleeding after an abortion who was rushed to the hospital on March 3, 2012. Operation Rescue had reason to believe that the clinic owner, Mi Yong Kim, may have been involved in the botched abortion even though her medical license had been surrendered in 2007 amid findings that she improperly sedated a patient in 2005 and failed to realize that the woman had gone into cardiac arrest.
Kim did not attempt to resuscitate her and the woman died as a result. Operation Rescue filed complaints against Kim and the clinic.
An unannounced inspection of Nova was conducted by state officials two months later, which revealed numerous health and safety violations, generally substandard care, and an additional botched abortion patient that required emergency hospitalization.
