Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Safe-n-legal in New Jersey

Inspections of N.J. licensed abortion clinics are rare

Health officials inspected only one of the state's six licensed abortion clinics in the past two years ... before complaints eventually brought inspectors to two of the clinics.... Those two clinics were then closed immediately due to health violations that posed "immediate and serious risk of harm to patients."

....

The abrupt closing of the Atlantic City clinic at the end of June exposed locally the potential dangers women face at such unmonitored facilities. But a statewide records request by The Press of Atlantic City shows the problem extends throughout the state. Inspections are sporadic at best and, when they do occur, discovering serious violations is common.

Inspections remain overdue for the three other abortion centers - by as much as seven years in the case of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County. The last inspection reports for all six clinics recorded violations.


Now here comes a juicy quote:

"These facilities are staffed by licensed professionals and part of their licensure requirements is that they uphold the highest of standards," he said. "We have confidence that they will continue to do that and notify us if there is a problem."


Yeah, like the two places that had to be shut down notified the state about their problems! Who the heck turns themselves in? This is akin to the IRS saying that they're gonna stop doing audits because they're sure that tax evaders will report themselves!

The article goes on to note that in addition to the state-licensed facilities, which in theory are inspected at least once in a while, there are at least a score of other facilities which can perform abortions as late as 14 weeks, that are not licensed by the state at all. The state's Division of Consumer Affairs may inspect them, but they don't release their inspection reports to the public. Possibly because there are no specific standards that they are expected to meet.

And let's just glance over some New Jersey incidents, shall we, to see if the lack of oversight might, just might, be causing any problems:

  • "Ellen", sent home with a fetal leg protruding from her uterus, died December 3, 1983.
  • "Faye", left unattended in a recovery room, where she stopped breathing, died December 15, 1979.
  • Deborah Ann Lozinski, left unattended, stopped breathing, went into a coma, died June 22, 1985.
  • Barbara Auerbach, discharged from a hospital aboriton with a bowel obstruction, died December 16, 1982.
  • Angela Reyolds, died January 18, 1988 from septic shock after an abortion.
  • Germaine Newman, sent home with an infection and perforation, found dead on the bathroom floor by her mother June 15, 1984.
  • Gail Wright, went septic, died March 26, 1986.
  • "Jane Doe of Newark", died after abortion at Metropolitan Medical Associates on June 16, 1993.
  • "Terri", abandoned by doctor in his private practice after her abortion, died April 11, 1991.

    That's what a search for "New Jersey" brought up at my site. Or rather, that's the deaths. I didn't include the routine quackery. You can go search for yourself if you like. The search box is at or near the bottom of most pages.

    HT: JJ
  • 3 comments:

    Leticia said...

    Is no one prosecuting these crimes against women? Where is NOW?

    Christina Dunigan said...

    I don't know about NOW, but the then-Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America actually went before the medical board to testify in favor of Steve Brigham!

    Four Pointer said...

    I once had a dialogue by e-mail with Peggy Loonan, head of Life and Liberty for Women (a hypocritical title if there ever was one), and I asked her why abortion clinics shouldn't be inspected. I don't recall her exact words, but she replied with some nonsense about clinics regulating themselves, low number of abortion tests, blah blah blah.

    I wasn't too up to date on my figures, so I didn't have the facts to answer her. I knew it was a crock, but I couldn't back it up. I wish I could have that conversation with her now, and toss this little tidibit to her.