The British-based abortion chain that was caught jeopardizing women’s safety is suspending some of its abortion practices in Ireland as well as England, the BBC reports.
On Friday, The Guardian reported Marie Stopes International suspended certain abortion procedures after the British Care Quality Commission discovered serious safety concerns. The suspension includes abortions on under-age girls and vulnerable groups of women, and abortions using general anesthetic or conscious sedation. In addition, its Norwich facility is not performing any surgical abortions, the commission said.
New reports indicate that the abortion group also stopped doing certain abortions at its Belfast facility in Ireland. A spokesperson for Marie Stopes said they chose to extend the suspension to their Belfast facility voluntarily; the CQC does not oversee facilities in Ireland.
The BBC did not mention how many abortions the Belfast facility performs but noted that its abortion services are limited. Abortions are prohibited in most circumstances in Ireland, though abortion activists are trying to change that.
The CQC has not released details about its findings at the Marie Stopes abortion facilities. A full report is expected in the fall. Marie Stopes is one of the largest abortion chains in the UK, performing about 70,000 abortions on unborn babies each year.
The commission said its health inspectors began reporting concerns after conducting inspections of the abortion facilities. Their concerns led to an unannounced inspection of the Marie Stopes headquarters and call center in England within the past month, according to the Guardian. Its inspectors found concerns related to “consent” and “training and competence in conscious sedation and general anesthesia.”
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The commission said drastic action was necessary to “to make sure that patients are protected from potential harm.”
Marie Stopes International receives millions of British taxpayer dollars for abortions, Mark Bhagwandin, a spokesman for the pro-life pregnancy resource organization Life, told The Daily Mail.
“This is not the first time that Marie Stopes clinics have been in the news,” Bhagwandin said. “If in the United Kingdom a regulatory body has to step in to save patients, we must rightly wonder about the safety of millions of women who go to this organization’s clinics worldwide where there may not be regulatory bodies like the CQC.
“It will be interesting to see what the full conclusions of the report are as after all they do receive a lot of tax payers’ money, and if women are not being treated safely it will be a matter of huge public concern,” he added.
In the past few years, LifeNews has reported numerous instances where women allegedly suffered injuries or even died after having abortions at Marie Stopes facilities. In one of the more recent cases, a woman allegedly died from a heart attack caused by “extensive internal blood loss” just hours after having an abortion.
In a 2011 case, a British abortionist lost his medical license after he was accused of nearly killing a woman in a botched abortion at a Marie Stopes abortion facility in West London, LifeNews reported.
Currently, one of its Australia facilities is facing a lawsuit from a woman who said she almost died there after having an abortion. The woman claims that a Marie Stopes abortionist failed to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy before the abortion. A few days later, the woman had to have emergency surgery because her fallopian tube ruptured and threatened her life, according to court documents.
