Shoddy Texas abortion chain comes to Minnesota

Midwest Health Center for Women, an abortion facility located in downtown Minneapolis, has been taken over by a Texas abortion clinic chain called Whole Woman's Health. The new center, now called Whole Women's Health of the Twin Cities, opened on Feb. 14. It will continue to provide both RU486 chemical abortions and surgical abortions through 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Sign outside WWH clinic in Texas

Midwest Health Center performed 1,961 abortions in 2010, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. It was the third leading performer of abortions in Minnesota, behind Planned Parenthood and Meadowbrook Women's Clinic.

Whole Woman's Health has been investigated by Operation Rescue, which reports:

Whole Woman's Health recently made headlines in Texas when two of its clinics in Austin and McAllen, were caught during an undercover investigation by Operation Rescue illegally dumping the remains of aborted babies in open and overflowing trash dumpsters. Together with Stericycle, the chain's medical waste disposal company, the abortion clinics were fined a total of $83,000.

In addition, Operation Rescue filed complaints against several abortionists associated with Whole Woman's Health to the Texas Medical Board, resulting in eight of those abortionists facing Board discipline for numerous allegations, including the illegal dumping of private patient medical records, HIPAA violations, and violations of the Texas informed consent laws. Several WWH abortionists have previous disciplinary histories, including one who was responsible for a patient death.

Some of these revelations were covered by LifeNews.com and the Associated Press, and you can read about WWH's enthusiastic approach to abortion here.

The shoddy history of Whole Woman's Health highlights the need for abortion clinic licensing and inspections. Current MCCL-backed legislation would require abortion clinics to be licensed and allow for inspections.