Pro-Life Page

Friday, September 20, 2013

BY OPERATION RESCUE STAFF

Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:32 EST

Tags: AbortionOperation Rescue

 
Cleveland, OH, September 20, 2013 (OperationRescue.org) — In a year of record closures, two more abortion clinics have gone out of business.

Operation Rescue has confirmed that an abortionist who wore a butcher’s apron while injuring a woman during an abortion has closed his Cleveland, Ohio, abortion clinic and is moving out of state.

Meanwhile, a Livingston, Montana, abortion clinic has announced its closure as of October 1, 2013, due to the impending retirement of long-time abortionist Susan Wicklund.

These two closures bring the tally of out-of-business abortion businesses to 44 so far this year.

Martin Ruddock, 77, shuttered his Cleveland Center for Women’s Health abortion clinic last week. Ruddock told a covert Operation Rescue investigator that he “couldn’t” continue to do abortions in Ohio and that he would be “helping women” in another state. Ruddock did not elaborate further.

It is possible that Ruddock could not comply with the hospital transfer agreement requirement that is required for abortionists in Ohio and could be taking employment elsewhere.

“The Center for Women’s Health joins a record list of abortion clinics that have closed so far this year. When abortionists like Ruddock shut down, it takes us one step closer to an end to abortion,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “However, we are concerned about women in whatever state Ruddock might relocate. This aging abortionist isn’t likely to improve his shoddy practices anytime soon.”

In 2006, Ruddock was forced to temporarily close after Ohio Department of Health inspectors discovered that the clinic was not meeting even the most rudimentary of medical standards, such as taking a patient’s temperature and blood pressure before risky late-term abortion surgeries.

In September 2012, Ruddock appeared outside his abortion clinic during a medical emergency wearing what appeared to be a butcher’s apron. He was overseeing the transfer from his abortion clinic to an awaiting ambulance of a 26-year old second-trimester abortion patient suffering from a high fever and disorientation.

Five weeks later, an ambulance transported a 30-year old woman suffering lacerations and heavy bleeding after Ruddock botched her abortion at 22 weeks. Records of a 911 call obtained through open records requests indicated she was “bleeding bad” and passing large blood clots larger than a 50 cent piece.

In Livingston, Montana, the Mountain Country Women’s Clinic has halted all abortions and announced that it will be closing after only four years in business so that its abortionist-owner, Susan Wicklund, can “focus her attention on her health and her family.” Wicklund, 58, has been committing abortions for 26 years and has maintained a high public profile in support of abortion, even publishing a book about her experiences as an abortionist.

Mountain Country Women’s Clinic and Ohio’s Center for Women’s Health are the latest to join the unprecedented and ever-growing list abortion clinic closures across America this year.

Reasons for the closures include:

• A declining abortion rate.
• Increased pro-life sentiment.
• A flood of new state laws that establish abortion standards.
• Increased enforcement of existing laws.
• Retirement of aging abortionists.
• Greater incidents of documentation and reporting of abortion abuses by pro-life activists.

“Interestingly, the abortion cartel is failing due to their bad behavior. Some can’t meet minimum safety standards and close rather than clean up. Others may be able to ensure proper emergency care by failing to secure hospital transfer agreements or privileges. Still others have negligence issues and are forced to close by states that are beginning to inspect and enforce new and existing laws,” said Newman. “This is a trend that we expect to continue until abortion is abolished in our country once and for all.”

 
 
Thursday, September 19, 2013

 

BY BEN JOHNSON

Wed Sep 18, 2013 15:29 EST

FORT WAYNE, IN, September 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Indiana abortionist failed to report performing an abortion on a 13-year-old girl, as required by Indiana law, possibly allowing her abuser to go free, a new complaint says.

Dr. Ulrich George Klopfer performed a suction curettage abortion on a young black girl at Fort Wayne Women's Health Organization on February 7. The baby was at 11 weeks gestation. The girl had not yet reached the eighth grade.

 

Under Indiana law, Klopfer is required to report cases of suspected sexual abuse within three days. He instead reported the abortion nearly six months later, on July 25. (Read his reporthere.)

Allen County Right to Life Executive Director Cathie Humbargerand sidewalk counselor Evelyn Witte each filed complaints with Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller and the Indiana Medical Licensing Board over the abortionist's failure to act.

“I request the immediate suspension of the medical license of Dr. Ulrich Klopfer” pending “a full investigation,” they wrote.

"It's heartbreaking to learn that a 13-year-old became pregnant and now must live with the pain of an abortion for the rest of her life,” Humbarger said in a press release. “But it's doubly-heartbreaking that Dr. Klopfer's failure to report the abortion may have allowed the girl's molester to walk."

Worse yet, this may not be the first such incident, according to the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, which broke the story.

Last year, Klopfer failed to report another abortion of another 13-year-old girl in Lake County, according to another complaint filed by Humbarger. The complaint has not yet been ruled on.

Minors younger than 14 cannot consent to sex under state law, and authorities investigate such pregnancies as possible cases of statutory rape or molestation.

“Sadly, this is not the first time I have filed a complaint over Klopfer’s failure to report an abortion on a 13-year-old within the time frame required by law, yet he still practices today,” Humbarger said. “His failure to report is appalling.”

Last year, a pro-life protester caught Klopfer on video screaming about her 12-year-old daughter being gang raped. Ulrich briefly confronted a sidewalk counselor outside South Bend's Women’s Pavilion abortion facility, where the Illinois resident also performs abortions. “And while your little girl gets raped by 10 guys, gets pregnant with twins, you’re gonna have your grandchildren,” he screamed. “Shut up!”

The state abortion industry has a murky history of withholding the records of underage girls from state officials. Planned Parenthood fought a nearly two-year court battle against then-state Attorney General Steve Carter, when he requested the medical records of 73 girls under the age of 14 who had abortions, although he vowed to respect the girls' confidentiality. The lawsuit was settled in late 2006 in Planned Parenthood's favor.

Two years later, Lila Rose personally filmed undercover exposés at a Bloomington Planned Parenthood and another abortion facility in Indianapolis. In each case, she told them she was a 13-year-old girl impregnated by her 31-year-old “boyfriend.”

At both institutions, employees responded by saying they “didn't want to know” or “really don't care about” the perpetrator's age and suggested ways she could avoid the state's parental consent law.

The ongoing violation of the law should raise eyebrows, and invite legal scrutiny, the state's pro-life leaders say.

“Klopfer's failure to report this abortion raises serious red flags about his abortion business,” Mike Fichter, President and CEO of Indiana Right to Life, added in the same press release. “If he fails to send in a one-page form when he does an abortion on a 13-year-old, how can anyone know if he is following state abortion law in other areas such as informed consent, facility standards and appropriately determining the age of the baby before he aborts him or her?”

Humbarger said she found just such a legal evasion, filing a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department that the Fort Wayne office, located at 2210 Inwood Drive, is not wheelchair accessible.

The Obama administration declined to investigate. 

 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

BY BEN JOHNSON

Fri Sep 13, 2013 14:49 EST

 
 
RICHMOND, VA, September 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Terry McAuliffe has been caught on tape saying he will issue a directive to allow abortion clinics that do not meet state health standards to stay in business if he is elected governor of Virginia.

McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee who is now running for governor against pro-life stalwart Ken Cuccinelli, said he will take executive action to sidestep the requirements on behalf of subpar abortion facilities.

Reviewing the circumstances of abortion facilities in the Old Dominion, he said, “Norfolk is closed.Fairfax is closed, or closing, so there will be 18 [abortion facilities] left.”

“Only one of those 18 actually meet the requirements, so they'll all close” without an assist from a friendly governor.

“I will issue what's called a guidance opinion by mid-March ,” he said, “to grandfather in those remaining clinics to keep them open.”

“That's why this election is so important, and I will do that." he vowed.

Steve Rossie of the Virginia-based Family Foundation said that McAuliffe “has made clear during the campaign that he opposes the standards, enabled as part of a bipartisan law passed during the 2011 General Assembly, but this is the first time he has said he will repeal or alter them Barack-Obama-style by some type of executive action without legislative approval.”

He calls the promise “reckless,” especially in light of Kermit Gosnell, who routinely flouted Pennsylvania state law and health standards that had not been enforced under multiple administrations.

“Remember, it was then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge who ignored the law in that state requiring abortion center inspections that allowed Gosnell to go unnoticed for years, harming untold numbers of women and children,” Rossie said.

According to the group Women Speak Out, “the Virginia Health Commissioner reported to the Board of Health that more than 80 violations were discovered in abortion centers.”

The Virginia showdown, now seven weeks away, is considered the most important race in the nation, and a possible precusor of how the state will vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Polls show McAuliffe with a modest edge.

However, he enjoys a significant advantage in fundraising. The former DNC chairman has extensive contacts around the country, as well as deep ties to the Clinton family.

Former President Clinton sent McAuliffe $100,000 from his own funds.

Tom Steyer, a California-based billionaire and environmentalist activist, has spent $400,000 for attack ads against Cuccinelli.

McAuliffe met earlier this month with retiring New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent billionaire who favors abortion-on-demandgay “marriage,”nanny state health regulations, and gun control.

The abortion lobby long ago cast its lot with McAuliffe. Planned Parenthood teamed up with McAuliffeto launch the attack website, Keep Ken Out.

McAuliffe and his allies have used pro-abortion donations to finance an ad accusing Cuccinelli of waging a “war on abortion” and a mass mailing accusing the attorney general of being “way out there.”

Most recently, NARAL Virginia released undercover audio of a volunteer purportedly catching crisis pregnancy centers staff telling “lies” to pregnant women, although Adam Cassandra of Human Life International notes that the audio “contains zero falsehoods.”

Cuccinelli has earned the abortion industry's ire, voting to overturn then-Democratic Governor Mark Warner's veto of the partial birth abortion ban, drafting the state's parental consent law, leading efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, and insisting the state's abortion facilities meet the same health standards as other surgical centers.

Last April, the state attorney general said that LifeSiteNews.com is "the homepage for one of the computers in our house" at a fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C.

He explained to Tony Perkins on AFR Talk Thursday afternoon that the importance of the race is that it will be “the first step back for conservatives if we can win in 2013, as we head toward 2014.”

In the midterm elections, Republicans hope to retain control of the House and take back the U.S. Senate.

But Cuccinelli said, although many people wish him well, significant financial “support hasn't been there.”

“I could really use the help at Cuccinelli.com,” he said.

 

Monday, September 16, 2013
Tom Strode - Baptist Press
 
 
 

COURTESY OF 40 DAYS FOR LIFE/COALITION FOR LIFE

August closing of Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas.

Update: The Huffington Post assessed the "dramatic toll" that recent pro-life lawshave taken on abortion clinics, with Arizona leading the way. Meanwhile, the abortion battle has gone digital as more states ban abortions by telemedicine.

CT has examined the new pro-life surge in-depth.

(BP) For Abby Johnson, the closing of a single Planned Parenthood center demonstrated her dramatic reversal from abortion clinic director to leading pro-life advocate.

But for pro-lifers throughout the United States, it marked another exhibit in a hopeful trend—abortion centers are shutting down at an unprecedented rate. The total so far this year is 44, according to a pro-life organization that tracks clinic operations.

None was more telling for Johnson than the mid-July closing of the Planned Parenthood center in Bryan, Texas. It came less than four years after Johnson, burdened by her involvement with abortion, walked out of that clinic as its director and into the offices of the Coalition for Life.

"Knowing that the former abortion clinic I once ran is now closing is the biggest personal victory of my life," Johnson said in a written statement after the announcement of the shutdown. "From running that facility, to then advocating for its closure, and now celebrating that dream ... it shows that my life has indeed come full circle."

Since her celebrated conversion from Planned Parenthood director, Johnson has started a ministry to help workers leave the abortion industry. She has pledged, as she said in July, to "fight until every abortion clinic in this country has shut its doors."

This year, 42 clinics that provided surgical abortions have shut their doors, and two that offered chemical abortions by drugs also have closed, according to Operation Rescue, which monitors closings and health and safety violations by clinics nationwide. That number far surpasses the 25 surgical clinics shutdown last year and the 30 in 2011, by Operation Rescue's count. While others estimate a smaller number of closings, the pattern is clear.

Some of the shutdowns have been of major clinics. For instance, Virginia's No. 1 abortion provider closed, The Washington Post reported in July. NOVA Women's Healthcare in Fairfax, Va., shut down after state and local governments enacted regulations the abortion provider appeared unable to meet. The northern Virginia clinic performed 3,066 abortions in 2012 and 3,567 in 2011.

The reasons given for the upswing in closings are varied even among pro-lifers. They include:

-- the increasing state regulation and oversight of clinics;

-- a growth in pro-life opinion and activity, and

-- a significant decline in the abortion rate.

In some cases, clinics have shut down when abortion doctors retired or were no longer licensed.

State legislatures enacted 69 pro-life laws this year, according to a report released Thursday (Sept. 5) by Americans United for Life. In all, 48 states considered about 360 such proposals in 2013, AUL reported.

The legislative action this year continued a recent trend in states: 70 "life-affirming measures" became law in 2011 and 38 in 2012, according to AUL.

Some measures have targeted making the procedure and clinics safer for women, and have helped escalate the number of clinic shutdowns. This year, states such as Alabama, North Carolina and Texas passed varied laws either requiring abortion clinics to meet the same health and safety standards as outpatient surgical centers, or authorizing the state to enforce such requirements. Also, in 2013, North Dakota and Wisconsin joined Alabama and Texas in mandating abortion doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

Editor's note: Read the full Baptist Press article here. CT has previously reported on abortion clinic restrictions and legislation restricting abortion. CT also covered pro-life groups exposing abortion practices and how pro-lifers are winning theabortion battle.

 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

by Cheryl Sullenger | Virginia Beach, VA | LifeNews.com | 9/12/13 12:18 PM

Pro-life activists gathered on the twelfth anniversary of the September 11 attacks at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to expose an African-American abortionist found to be preying on women of color.

“As America remembered the terrible attack on 9-11, I stood in front of Planned Parenthood in Virginia Beach,” said Dr. Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union in Washington, D.C. “I prayed knowing that while this 

great country of ours rightfully mourns more than 3000 lives lost that day, my heart aches knowing that last year alone, more than 300,000 children were killed in the most gruesome and brutal ways possible by abortion at Planned Parenthood clinics. It is especially sad knowing that in Virginia Beach, Tamer Middleton, a black abortionist who preys on her own people, was in the clinic today slicing and dicing children into little bits.”

The pro-life activists held signs with Tamer Middleton’s photo and name in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. Middleton is a “fly-in” abortionist who is known to work at abortion clinics in predominately Black neighborhoods, including Planned Parenthood in Mobile, Alabama, and a Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where late-term abortions are done. Ironically, medical licensing sites list her “specialty” as “Family Medicine.”

The group also objects to the fact that Middleton, who is based in Georgia, travels to Virginia Beach to abort babies then leaves the state, providing no continuity of care to women suffering from complications from abortions.

Their fears for the safety of women and the lives of babies are well-founded. Operation Rescue published photos taken by a local activist of an ambulance at the same Planned Parenthood and a 911 recording revealing a life-threatening medical emergency that put one patient in the hospital in October, 2011.

For more information about Tamer Middleton, please visit AbortionDocs.org.

LifeNews.com Note: Cheryl Sullenger is a leader of Operation Rescue, a pro-life that monitors abortion practitioners and exposes their illegal and unethical practices.

 

Monday, September 9, 2013

BY LIFESITENEWS.COM

Mon Sep 09, 2013 12:56 EST

Albuquerque, NM, September 9, 2013 (OperationRescue.org) – The Albuquerque Journal released results of a poll today that shows 54% of Albuquerque voters support the proposed municipal ban on abortions after 20 weeks, when babies are known to feel pain. Only 39% opposed the ordinance.

The late-term abortion ban particularly enjoyed favor among Hispanic people, 57% of whom support the ordinance regardless of party affiliation. Those who identified as Republicans expressed an overwhelming 80% support for the ordinance.

This is the first known effort to ban late-term abortions on the municipal level. Albuquerque holds the dubious distinction of being known as the “Late-term Capital of America” because it is the site of Southwestern Women’s Options, the largest late-term abortion clinic in the U.S.

“This poll shows what we have been saying all along, that the proposed Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance has wide support in Albuquerque. Putting this ordinance to a vote is the right thing to do,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Late-term abortion is a barbaric and dangerous practice that has no place in a civilized society. There are better, more compassionate alternatives for women in the late stages of pregnancy than inflicting upon them and their babies the brutality of abortion.”

Organizers used the legislative initiative process to get the ban on a city-wide ballot after it became clear that the predominately pro-abortion Democratic state legislature would not act. Needing only about 12,000 signatures of registered voters to place the ordinance on the ballot, organizers gathered a remarkable 27,000 signatures in 20 days.

City Council President Dan Lewis, who says he supports the late-term abortion ban, has indicated that he will introduce a resolution at the next city council meeting on Monday to place the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance on a city-wide ballot on November 19th. The election would be conducted via a mail-in ballot. That resolution is expected to be adopted by the city council.

Tara Shaver of Project Defending Life acts as spokesperson for the ordinance effort. She gathered documentation through open records requests that indicated ambulances were transporting women to hospital emergency rooms from Southwestern Women’s Options at an alarming rate. Over a dozen 911 records showed women were experiencing life-threatening complications to abortions as late as 35 weeks ranging from a ruptured uterus to heavy hemorrhage. Southwestern Women’s Options is a freestanding abortion clinic that is not equipped to handle serious complications that arise from the risky late abortions.

Last month, Operation Rescue staff members participated in a pro-life training conference in Albuquerque, which was followed by street protests conducted by Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. Abortion supporters criticized the protests as “outsiders” trying to affect city policies. However, Newman has a different take on who the “outsiders” really are.

“Both of the clinic’s primary abortionists, Shelley Sella and Susan Robinson, fly in to Albuquerque from California to do the abortions then fly out again. Neither hold local hospital privileges. In fact, the clinic is owned by Texas abortionist Curtis Boyd. They are the ones coming in to Albuquerque to cause issues,” said Newman. “The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance is truly a grass-roots effort put forward by people who live in Albuquerque, like the Shavers. It is supported by pro-life groups around the country because women from every state are currently traveling to Albuquerque to have these dangerous abortions at the latest stages of pregnancy. The poll confirms that it is the out-of state abortionists who are out-of-step with the people of Albuquerque.”

While critics say the ordinance is illegal since it runs contrary to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that decriminalized abortion, pro-life activists argue that Supreme Court precedent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey narrowed the Roe ruling, allowing states to regulate and even ban late-term abortions. Bans similar to Albuquerque’s proposed ordinance have been passed in 11 states and introduced at the Federal level.

“This ordinance has a high probability of success, given the popular support in the community, and we are confident it will pass constitutional muster if it is ever challenged,” said Newman.

 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Thu Sep 05, 2013 14:09 EST

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In response to the news that taxpayers will foot at least part of the bill for lawmakers’ and Congressional staffers’ healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – better known as ObamaCare – attorneys for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have issued a letter reminding the Obama administration that federal law prohibits tax money being spent on plans that cover abortion, and that the president himself promised not to change that.

Current federal law governing federal employees’ health plans states, “No funds...shall be available to pay for an abortion, or the administrative expenses in connection with any health plan…which provides any benefits or coverage for abortions.” The law includes exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.

But beginning next year, legislators and their staffers will be able to choose their own insurance plans from the new state healthcare exchanges and have their expenses partially reimbursed by the federal government.

Some of the available plans will include abortion coverage.

The USCCB’s attorneys argued in their letter that current federal laws barring the use of taxpayer funds for abortion coverage still apply, regardless of where or by whom a plan is purchased.

“Contributions by the federal government to health plans that cover elective abortions,” they add, would also “run afoul of the administration’s own assurances, both before and after ACA’s enactment, that ACA would not be construed to authorize such contributions.”

Prior to ObamaCare’s passage, President Obama told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that ObamaCare “is a health care bill, not an abortion bill…we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions.”

“I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test — that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions,” he said.

“The president has repeatedly assured Congress and the American people that current restrictions on abortion funding would not be reversed, or weakened in their application, by ACA,” the USCCB’s attorneys wrote. “Such assurances played a major role in securing final passage of the bill, and were formalized in an executive order issued by the president.”

But despite previous assurances, since ObamaCare was passed, the administration has been evasive about whether congressional employees who choose to purchase plans that include abortion coverage will be eligible for reimbursement under ObamaCare.

A rules Q&A released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said simply that “individuals who enroll in exchange plans will be subject to the same rules established for [private citizens] on the exchange.”

The new rules do not mention any restrictions on abortion coverage.

 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

11:54 AM, Sep 5, 2013 | by Jason Noble

 

The chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa blasted two Democratic candidates for governor for standing by while a woman prayed for continued access to abortion during a political rally in the Capitol last week.

Party Chairman A.J. Spiker called the prayer, delivered by Midge Slater of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, “sick, twisted and disgusting” and faulted candidates Tyler Olson and Jack Hatch for not indicating their disapproval of it.

“Praying to God and thanking Him for abortions, and then asking for his guidance to provide more abortions, is one of the most atrocious things I’ve ever heard of,” Spiker said in a lengthy prepared statement.

He added, “If this is what Olson and Hatch think will help them in their race to defeat Terry Branstad in 2014, then it shows just how unbelievably out of touch they are with everyday Iowans and how poorly they’re going to perform come election time.”

The prayer was held near the beginning of an “Iowa Women Deserve Better” rally at the Capitol shortly before a meeting of the state Board of Medicine on a proposed rule barring the use of telemedicine in medication abortions.

The purpose of the rally was specifically to defend legal access to abortion.

Both Olson, a state representative from Cedar Rapids, and Hatch, a state Senator from Des Moines, spoke at the event, as did state Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, and state Rep. Marti Anderson, D-Des Moines. All four stood near the lectern as Slater delivered the prayer with their heads bowed.

In the prayer, (posted online here by The Iowa Republican blog) Slater thanked God for doctors who perform abortions and prayed for their safety. She also prayed that elected officials support “a woman’s right to make her own medical decision” and for continued access to “all forms of birth control.”

“We give thanks and celebrate that abortion is still safe and legal,” Slater said.

In an interview with the Register on Thursday, Olson reiterated his support for access to abortion but said he couldn’t speak to anyone else’s view on the matter.

“I believe that the decision should not be made at state Capitol. It should be made between a woman, her doctor, her family, her faith community, whoever she wants to include in that,” he said. “That’s my position, it has been my position, it will be my position and I don’t speak for anybody else.”

Calls to Hatch were not immediately returned.

At a simultaneous rally held by abortion opponents at a nearby church, organizers distributed a “prayer guide” containing several suggested prayers underscoring opposition to abortion. Many attendees read off the sheet as they prayed silently in the church sanctuary.

One of the prayers asked forgiveness “for allowing the telemed abortion distribution system to exist in our state and deliver us from this great evil.”

Another thanked the Lord for “the newly appointed Iowa Board of Medicine who voted to review the distribution of the dangerous RU-486 abortion drug thru telemedicine.” It continued, “May the Lord endow them with wisdom and understanding.”

 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

by Steven Ertelt | Madison, WI | LifeNews.com | 9/2/13 3:58 PM

On Friday, a judge in Wisconsin issued an injunction blocking part of a pro-life law designed to protect the health and safety of women considering abortions. Governor Scott Walker signed the law in July.

U.S. District Judge William Conley issued an order blocking a law that requires abortion practitioners to have admitting privileges at a local hospital to admit women as patients when the abortion injures them and causes problems requiring emergency medical attention.

A federal judge on Friday extended his hold on a portion of a new Wisconsin law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, issuing an injunction blocking the mandate for another four months.

U.S. District Judge William Conley’s order stems from a lawsuit Planned Parenthood and Affiliated Medical Services filed in July. The organizations say the law would force a Planned Parenthood clinic in Appleton and an AMS clinic in Milwaukee to close because abortion providers at both facilities lack admitting privileges.

Conley issued a temporary hold on the provisions on July 8. The organizations asked him to issue a preliminary injunction that would block the requirement through a trial set to begin Nov. 25.

State attorneys defending the law could ask the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the injunction. A spokeswoman for the state Justice Department said in an email that agency lawyers are reviewing Conley’s order and considering their “next step.” She did not elaborate. As the case stands now the two clinics can remain open at least until Conley issues a final ruling after the trial.

Susan Armacost, Legislative Director of Wisconsin Right to Life, has said: “Apparently, Wisconsin’s abortion clinics don’t believe their abortionists need to have hospital privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of their clinic….or anywhere at all. Currently, when a woman experiences hemorrhaging or other life-threatening complications after an abortion in Wisconsin, the clinic puts her in an ambulance and sends her to a hospital ALONE where she is left to her own devices to explain her medical issues to the emergency room staff. The abortionist who performed the abortion is nowhere to be seen.  This deplorable situation must change.”

Armacost said the new law is on sound constitutional footing. Nine other states have passed laws requiring abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges. Missouri’s admitting privilege law was challenged and upheld by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

C. Brent Boles, a Tennessee doctor, has spoken out about the importance of such a measure in his state.

“Currently, abortion facilities in Tennessee frequently do not provide any resource for patients to receive help or have questions answered after hours or on weekends.  Patients are left to fend for themselves.  They present to emergency rooms all over the state and they call GYN offices where the providers are not abortion providers and have no experience providing abortion services and they need help,” he explained.

“Complications of any procedure are best managed by those providers with the most experience in the particular field…complications of abortion are best managed by abortion providers,” Boles said. “In order to have complete access to everything that a post-abortion patient would need, the provider who cares for these patients  must have access to the facilities in a hospital….They must have access to the resources needed, and sometimes these resources are available only in a hospital.”

“Abortion providers should have a clear process, communicated to the patient in a simple way, that outlines how the patient is to contact the provider after hours for problems, and where they are to go if they must go to the Emergency Room,” he concluded.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

BY BEN JOHNSON

Wed Aug 28, 2013 14:28 EST

SACRAMENTO, CA, August 28, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – California is on the brink of allowing non-physicians to perform abortions in some circumstances.

 

The State Senate passed AB154 by a 25-11 vote on Monday. The bill would authorize midwives, nurse practitioners, and physicians’ assistants to perform first-trimester suction aspiration abortions.

Lou Correa of Anaheim was the only Democrat to vote against the bill, which was introduced by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.

If the state Assembly passes the amended bill and Governor Jerry Brown signs it into law, California will become the fifth state to allow – or at least not ban – the practice, joining Montana, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.

“The growing shortage of abortion providers creates a significant barrier for women,” according to State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara.Toni Atkins introduced the bill.

The Guttmacher Institute reports that in 2008 nearly one-third of all the nation's abortion providers -- more than 500 -- worked in California.

Live Action founder Lila Rose said the bill would allow Planned Parenthood “to kill unborn children at lower costs, as they would not have to pay a doctor.”

“In the wake of Kermit Gosnell, in whose abortion facility a woman died from an untrained staff member's mistake, it's unthinkable for lawmakers in California to push a law like this,” Rose said.

study conducted by Tracy Weitz, director of UC-San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, found that abortions performed by non-physicians had twice the rate of complications as those performed by doctors. However, Dr. Weitz called the difference “clinically equivalent.

The push to enable midwives and other non-physcicians to perform abortions is a growing trend in the West and elsewhere across the globe. At the Women Deliver conference earliler this year in Kuala Lumpur, Malysia, representatives of the population control lobby discussed using midwives as a vehicle for increasing the number of worldwide abortions

“Abortion backers say they care about the health and safety of women but their action show they just want more abortions, even if that means lower medical standards,” Rose said.

Readers may contact California assembly members of the committee, by visiting www.leginfo.ca.gov

 

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