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.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSoPys6KybI?rel=0]
