The following MCCL news release was issued today, Feb. 2, 2011.
In wake of Pennsylvania clinic horrors, Minnesota women learn they are no safer
Revelations of filth, disease and murder at a Pennsylvania abortion center have shocked the nation as more grisly details are uncovered. One woman was drugged to death by an unlicensed clinic worker; abortionist Kermit Gosnell has been arrested and charged with this and seven additional murders of newborn babies.
Gosnell's center has been called a "house of horrors" by investigators, and rightly so. The story of his profit-driven business model, which made him a multi-millionaire while it victimized women, has led some in Minnesota to ask: How well are our abortion centers regulated?
"Women need to know that the state of Minnesota does not regulate or inspect abortion clinics at all," said Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL). "The state cannot assure women that the abuses which occurred in Gosnell’s abortion center will not occur here."
MCCL has worked hard to see abortion clinic licensing and inspection requirements passed by the Legislature. Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions legalizing abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, MCCL helped to pass a provision authorizing the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to license and inspect abortion clinics in order to guarantee their safety for women. MDH subsequently drafted rules, which were immediately challenged in court by the abortion industry. The court ruled in favor of the abortion industry, which has remained unregulated and uninspected. Other MCCL efforts to protect women through passage of abortion center regulations have been thwarted by pro-abortion lawmakers.
Abortion center regulations consist of minimal health and safety standards necessary to ensure basic medical care for women before, during and after an abortion. Typical regulations include requirements that surgical instruments be sterilized, patient medical records be maintained, emergency care equipment is available and functioning, and post-procedural patient care and observation is provided.
"Minnesota government rightly regulates all manner of enterprises," Fischbach stated. "Every automobile and its owner must be licensed. Every doctor and hospital is licensed. Why don't we license and inspect abortion centers, which perform the most common surgical procedures in the nation?"
