An abortion clinic in Sacramento, California closed its doors on Friday, ending its four decades-long abortion practice.
California Catholic Daily reports the Sacramento facility is the second Women’s Health Specialists abortion clinic to close in the past year. Executive director of the abortion chain Shauna Heckert previously pointed to financial issues and a reduced demand for abortions as the reasons.
“We are a dying breed,” Heckert told told the news site FiveThirtyEight last year.
California pro-life leaders celebrated the news as a victory for babies and moms in the community.
“We have been praying in front of Women’s Health Specialists abortion business in Sacramento for decades, helping women and saving lives, including over a dozen 40 Days for Life campaigns,” said local pro-life leader Wynette Sills in the Californians for Life newsletter.
It is especially encouraging given that California is one of the worst states for legal protections unborn babies and moms.
Pro-abortion groups have managed to thwart laws to protect unborn babies and moms in California, but they have not been able to stop the pro-life movement from offering support and teaching facts about unborn babies and abortion. As a result, it appears that more women are rejecting abortion in favor of life for their unborn babies.
The California abortion chain has been struggling financially for years. According to Californians for Life, it took out several loans recently. It also was “involved in lawsuits over forcing workers to disrobe for group ‘self-exams,’” the group said in a newsletter.
The founder of the abortion chain, Carol Downer, also has a disturbing history.
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Here’s more from the report:
The abortion chain was started in Los Angeles by Carol Downer, now 84 years old. In 1982, when the bodies of more than 14,000 aborted babies were found in a shipping container, it was Downer and the Feminist Women’s Health Center that filed a lawsuit seeking to block the burial of the babies.
In 1983, the Los Angeles Health Department cited Downer with 24 violations of the Health Code, including: “No evidence that policies were reviewed by a professional, no registered nurse, no transfer agreement with a hospital, no quality assurance program and improper disposal of fetal remains.”
In 1998, Downer orchestrated a defense for abortionist Dr. Bruce Steir, who was charged and convicted of killing Sharon Hamptlon, a young mother who bled to death after Steir punctured her uterus during an abortion. Steir, who was on probation from the state medical board at the time, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, went to jail and lost his medical license.
According to the March 29, 2016 edition of the Californians for Life newsletter, Steir “performed thousands of abortions at Women’s Health Specialists.”
Downer also observed Harvey Karman, an illegal, untrained abortionist who worked closely with Kermit Gosnell, the report states. In 2013, Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist, was convicted of murdering three late-term newborn babies and contributing to the death of a female patient.
Abortion clinics in the United States are closing at a record pace as demand for their deadly business declines and abortionists retire, a 2016 Bloomberg analysis found.
Between 2011 and 2015, at least 162 abortion clinics closed or stopped doing abortions; 21 new abortion clinics opened in that same time period, according to the analysis. A report from Operation Rescue also showed 53 abortion clinics closed in 2015 alone.
The lack of business has been a major factor in the closing of abortion clinics, the Bloomberg report suggested. Abortion rates are dropping to historic lows across America as more women choose life for their unborn babies. In 2014, abortions dropped below 1 million for the first time since 1975, the Guttmacher Institute reported in January.
These are clear signs that pro-life advocates are making a difference. Through sidewalk counseling, pregnancy resources, educational efforts and pro-life laws, our grassroots movement is helping to save countless lives from the devastation of abortion.
