Analysis

Abortion clinics unlicensed, uninspected while tattoo parlors subject to regulations

Live Action’s latest investigative video, “Is it Safe?,” scrutinizes safety at abortion clinics across the country, as well as whether or not Planned Parenthood specifically lies to patients regarding the dangers of abortion. The video reveals that in 24 months, there were 14 cases of injury at Planned Parenthood clinics, including the death of Tonya Reaves as the result of a botched abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Chicago, Illinois. Despite the fact that an autopsy revealed that Planned Parenthood of Chicago was guilty of gross negligence resulting in Reaves’s death, the clinic continues to tell potential clients that no one has been hurt at their clinic and that abortion is safe, as can be seen in Live Action’s undercover video. The clinic waited 5 hours to call 911, while Reaves hemorrhaged and later died, her uterus outside her body.

The Problem:

Abortion laws and regulations vary from state to state, and Illinois, where Reaves was killed, does not require that a licensed physician perform abortions or, according to Chicago Now, that clinics be licensed and has not regularly been inspecting clinics. In addition, there is no parental consent law in effect, as well as no law requiring informed consent before an abortion. This means that the clinic doesn’t have to tell abortion clients about the known risks of:

  • Uterine perforation,
  • Cervical lacerations which can result in long-term reproductive damage,
  • Endometritis Infection (teenagers are 2.5 times more likely to get endometritis after abortion),
  • Breast cancer (risk doubles after an abortion),
  • Cervical, ovarian, liver cancer, and
  • Death.

In Comparison:

While surgical abortion clinics go uninspected and unlicensed, the Chicago, Illinois school system requires written parental consent for children to receive over-the-counter medication such as sunscreen and Tylenol in school. And prescription medications can be administered only with parental consent in addition to a doctor’s note. Plus, school nurses must complete 20 hours of continuing education every two years to ensure that students receive up-to-date and safe care.

In that same state, tattoo and body-piercing parlors must carry a license and are subject to safety inspections. They must also follow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Blood-Borne Pathogens Standard and the federal Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act.

Any doctor performing any surgery other than abortion must be licensed and must have a medical degree. Dentists and dental assistants must be licensed. And chiropractors must be licensed. Yet in 2003, the World Health Organization recommended that abortion services be provided at the “lowest appropriate level of the health-care system.”

A Widespread Government Failure:

Illinois isn’t the only state that enforces safety regulations for schools and tattoo parlors while neglecting abortion clinic safety standards. Across the country, abortion clinics go uninspected and unlicensed while abortion proponents fight any attempt by the government to do so. Eleven states allow non-physicians to perform abortions, and thirteen states allow abortions on underage girls without their parents’ knowledge.

In New York City, while schools need parental consent to give over-the-counter medications including sunscreen and Tylenol, they don’t need parental consent to provide students with the morning-after pill, which has killed 29 women, including a 15-year-old girl.

The Result:

Because abortion clinics and medications aren’t held to the same basic safety standards that school nurses, over-the-counter meds, and tattoo parlors are, women and children are suffering. The prime example: abortionist Kermit Gosnell was charged with killing one woman by a botched abortion, and seven newborns with scissors in his “house of horrors” clinic in Philadelphia. One client claims he forced her to have an abortion, and he performed many abortions illegally into the third trimester. His clinic hadn’t been inspected in 17 years. How many other clinics are like Gosnell’s? How many clinics are just uninspected, unlicensed, moneymaking baby-killing machines with staff that would rather fatten their wallets than protect women?

The bottom line: abortion isn’t safe, and the government must stop treating it like the favorite child with no rules, no regulations, loopholes to existing rules, and special favors. The health and safety of women and children depend on it.

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  • Susan Zajac

    My husband is a state-licensed, board certified chiropractic physician who spent years getting his education. I am very offended that you put Chiropractors in the same headline as Abortion Clinics and Tattoo parlors.

    • TellinItLikeItIS

      You offend to easily then. They didnt say anything bad about Chiropractors. Your husband is no better than an artist who gives a service to his clients, They were used as examples in this article. Get off of your high horse lady.

    • olaler

      You might be lying, saying your husband is a chiropractor ( many liberals think the ends justify the means). If they’d said “hospitals” instead of “chiropractors”, that wouldn’t be degrading hospitals? I think chiropractors that practice “natural medicine” are better than hospitals.

  • Susan Zajac

    Although the article is well-done and kudos for that, I have to take exception with you putting Chiropractors in the same headline with Abortion Clinics and Tattoo Parlors, like Chiropractic is some lower class medical profession.

    My husband is a state-licensed, board certified chiropractic physician
    who spent years getting his education. I am very offended that you put
    Chiropractors in the same headline as Abortion Clinics and Tattoo
    parlors.

    • Nancy

      Sorry about that. We didn’t mean to insult chiropractors. It was more about how, as far as I know, chiropractors don’t perform surgeries, not that the career is a lower class medical profession in anyway.

  • Detroiter327

    The morning after pill and RU-486 are two different things. Since you did not link to your source for the “29 women killed” from the morning after pill, I researched it myself. I mean thats a really daunting claim to throw out there without any sources. 29 women have not died from the morning after pill, this is the number of worldwide deaths from Mifepristone. Please ammend your article. The New York Public School system is not handing out Mifepristone.

    • LauraP

      You are asking an awful lot. There is probably not an article on this entire website that contains an actual fact. Pretty sure they won’t start changing now.

  • Pleasecorrect

    HEY ITS BEEN 24 HOURS AND YOU HAVE NOT CORRECTED YOUR “ARTICLE”

  • Detroiter327

    It has been several hours and this has not been changed. Please change the article.

  • Basset_Hound

    So I guess THESE are all those “heartless restrictions” all those EEEEVVVVIILLL Republican males want to pass on the “right to choose” as a part of the “GOP War on Women”.

    Last spring we had our teenage daughter’s wisdom teeth removed.

    We had to see the dental x-rays. The oral surgeon and the hygenist had to discuss the numerous (likely and unlikely) complications of the surgery. As well as the infamous “dry socket” complication we were told that the extraction could lead to nerve damage, facial paralysis and even my daughter’s death. And yes, I HAD to give consent for the surgery. When I asked why shouldn’t a similar procedure be follow for abortion, all I got in response from the “other side” were nasty names and comments.

    • Detroiter327

      This is quite an apt analogy. Did you know that more people have died from sedation dentistry in the recent past than from abortions?

      • Basset_Hound

        Did you know that abortion is an invasive medical procedure that can cause serious, and sometimes life threatening complications? Did you know that the gist of this article is to point out that many businesses which provide services that involve far less risk, such as tattoo parlors and hair salons are required to be licensed by state governments, while attempts to instigate comparable legislation to regulate abortion clinics is met with howls of protest? But then again, you probably overlooked this in your haste to score yet another pointless, irrelevant, and gratuitous cheap shot.

  • ProTruth2

    Yet in 2003, the World Health Organization recommended that abortion services be provided at the “lowest appropriate level of the health-care system.”

    And if medical practice in Illinois were governed by WHO bulletins rather than by state law, that would be relevant. It isn’t. Since you’re on the subject, though, it should also be noted that the WHO bulletin does not suggest that abortion be practiced by unlicensed people; rather, it says that medical professionals such as nurses may be able to perform some procedures.

    Any doctor performing any surgery other than abortion must be licensed

    That would imply that a doctor performing abortion does not need to be licensed. You have not given any evidence to that effect, because an unlicensed facility is not the same thing as an unlicensed professional. Illinois law (720 ILCS 510/1) says that an abortion may be performed only by a physician. I guess it’s written in a way to encompass physician assistants, but they must also be licensed.

    Despite the fact that an autopsy revealed that Planned Parenthood of Chicago was guilty of gross negligence resulting in Reaves’s death…

    Doesn’t anyone at LiveAction fact-check articles before they are posted? The autopsy revealed that Ms. Reaves died of a uterine hemorrhage caused by the abortion, but does not assign guilt. In the United States, we have something called “due process” which means, among other things, that guilt is determined through the court system. Neither Troy Newman nor you nor anyone else at LiveAction can determine guilt (or civil liability). Of course, people use the term casually–I might say that LiveAction is guilty of inexcusably lazy reporting–but one would think that an organization that claims to do investigative reporting would make at least a token effort to understand the allegations that they make.

    And actually, I’m not being snarky here. I believe that you honestly do not comprehend that Troy Newman is not a reliable source because he presents what he wants to be true as if it were fact, rather than recognizing that he does not know all the facts (and although you might not know any better, I’m pretty sure he does). This inability to distinguish between what you know to be true and what you want to be true is why LiveAction has no credibility.

    It may be that Planned Parenthood is guilty of Ms. Reaves death, although it does not yet appear that a prosecutor thinks so. It may also be that Ms. Reaves, like two hundred thousand other Americans each year, died of a preventable medical error. In either case, I hope that the responsible party is held accountable.

    “…clinic continues to tell potential clients that no one has been hurt at their clinic.”

    Whoever answered the phone at the clinic was wrong, and should be corrected. Whatever errors they committed, however, do not justify sloppy “reporting” by LiveAction.

    • Sorites Paradox

      I would like to reiterate Truth’s excellent point related to this quote:

      “Despite the fact that an autopsy revealed that Planned Parenthood of
      Chicago was guilty of gross negligence resulting in Reaves’s death…”

      I am a licensed attorney. “Gross negligence” is a legal term. To ‘reveal’ that someone ‘guilty of gross negligence’ is to make legal determination, through a civil or criminal adjudicatory process, that someone violated a duty of care owed to another person. An autopsy cannot do this, because an autopsy is not such a legal process. It is designed ONLY to determine the biological cause of death. It could be used as EVIDENCE in a case, but it in and of itself is NOT sufficient to establish negligence. In this case, as Truth pointed out, that legal determination has not been made because the case has not been prosecuted in a criminal case, nor has Reaves’s family brought a civil suit.

      It alarms me so much that this kind of misinformation is routinely printed on this site, especially Live Action purports to have attorneys on its staff. Misusing language in this way is unprofessional.

  • Detroiter327

    Alright. Over a day and you have not corrected your article.

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