Planned Parenthood of St. Louis, the only Planned Parenthood currently committing abortions in the state of Missouri, sent another patient to the hospital on November 2, 2016 — its 62nd patient sent by ambulance from the facility in under seven years.
Operation Rescue reports that just two weeks ago, a different patient was transported to the hospital from the same facility. Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said the sheer number of patients transported to the hospital from this Planned Parenthood (averaging about nine per year) shows that there is “obvious incompetence” within the facility, adding that he believes “[t]he Health Department is well aware of what is going on at Planned Parenthood, but has chosen to protect the abortionists rather than the vulnerable women who are suffering life-threatening injuries there.”
In 2013, Operation Rescue filed a FOIA request for information regarding the high number of ambulance transports and 911 calls from the St. Louis facility and was stonewalled by local authorities who claimed HIPAA laws prevented them from releasing the 911 incident records. However, authorities had released 911 records of other incidents to OR the year prior, and nothing had changed in the law between the two FOIA requests.
Earlier this year, a Missouri Senate panel issued a report on Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, stating that “Planned Parenthood’s own internal files reveal a shocking callousness toward vulnerable young women who seek their services.” The report also stated that “anomalies” in Planned Parenthood’s pathology reports “raise[d] questions concerning the sale of fetal tissue.” During the investigation, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri CEO Mary Kogut stonewalled the Senate panel’s attempts to obtain documents pertinent to their investigation — to the extent that the panel voted to hold her in contempt. The report left many questions unanswered. Live Action News’ Susan Michelle-Hanson noted in June:
The report discusses a group of fetuses, ages 9 to 20 weeks, in which there were “no fetal parts identified” and says that the babies in question should have had identifiable parts. The committee questions the reason for this. One possibility, it says, is that maybe the pathologist never received the fetal parts to examine, and if he didn’t, then it raises questions about what Planned Parenthood may have done with them. Another possibility is that the pathologist may have falsified the reports or performed such a poor procedure that his report wouldn’t give an accurate picture of what happened. Finally, the report says another possibility could be that the parts were not actually extracted from the patient, which could have endangered the patient’s life.
The panel report also notes what Hanson calls “a troubling disregard for the health and safety of women” who are patients of the Planned Parenthood facility:
Primarily, [the panel report] says that “there appears to be a deliberate effort to discourage women from seeking treatment at a hospital emergency room, apparently as part of an attempt to keep any medical errors or complications within the four walls of Planned Parenthood. Based on this evidence, it would appear that greed or secrecy trumps the concern for women’s health at PPSLR.”
With Planned Parenthood as a whole committing one abortion every 97 seconds, “greed” as a motivator would seem realistic:
Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region has a long history, continuing today, of risking women’s health and covering it up, with the help of authorities. At least 62 (that we know of) women experienced serious enough complications to require hospital transport.
Women entering the facility deserve to know this Planned Parenthood’s shoddy record — before they choose.
