Both Planned Parenthood and NARAL claim to have “condemned” Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s actions as “reprehensible.” The question, however, is what it is they actually believe he has done that deserves condemnation. Many of the same “horrors” found in Gosnell’s clinic have been discovered in Planned Parenthood clinics as well.
Kristi Burton Brown of Live Action News, a site devoted to undercover investigations to expose the abortion industry, believes this question needs to be asked in light of the fact that nearby Delaware Planned Parenthood has been discovered with “similar filthy and unsafe conditions.”
Brown reports that, on April 10th, an ABC News affiliate in Delaware announced a one-day closing and a temporary end to surgical abortions at Planned Parenthood of Delaware. Though the clinic claimed to require closure for a “routine cleaning,” ABC indicated that the state had “confirmed a new investigation.”
According to the ABC report, since January of 2013, five 911 calls have been placed from the facility for women in emergency situations. The high number of 911 calls in a short period of time “prompted a new investigation by the Delaware Department of Health and the State Board of Professional Licensure.”
Brown observes that this new investigation is especially problematic since Planned Parenthood of Delaware has been teaching others how to perform abortions while, at the same time, the clinic provides unacceptable medical care to its own patients.
Two nurses, former employees of Planned Parenthood of Delaware, provided some observations to the ABC affiliate. Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich and Joyce Vasikonis described horrific conditions such as the abortionist’s refusal to wear gloves, because “he didn’t think he needed to wear them,” failure to wash down the operating table, and the usage of unsterile instruments.
However, Planned Parenthood continued to publicly tout its commitment to “high-quality care.”
Ruth Lytle-Barnaby, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Delaware, issued a statement in which she announced a “review of patient services” and the “need to take immediate steps to assure our patients of our high-quality care, including enacting immediate personnel changes.”
“Patient health and safety has always been- and remains- our top priority,” Lytle-Barnaby wrote.
Brown states, however, “following Live Action investigations, Planned Parenthood often fires certain employees, claims that those employees violated standard policies, and then schedules ‘retraining.'”
In addition, Brown states that “Planned Parenthood’s abortionists regularly behead babies inside the womb at the same age of many of the babies Gosnell beheaded outside the womb.”
One of the obvious problems, as Brown sees it, is the fact that Planned Parenthood of Delaware has objected to routine investigations by the state and has thus been ultimately “left to be its own inspector.”
“It’s becoming ever clearer that, when Planned Parenthood is ‘essentially in charge of inspecting itself,’ horrible things happen, writes Brown:
Women are lied to about scientific facts and given inaccurate medical counsel. Sex-traffickers are accommodated while girls are offered up as victims. Child rape is covered up. Money is accepted to target black babies for killing. Girls are willingly killed, just for the sin of being a girl. Women’s needs are claimed to be met. Abortions are forced. Baby legs and feet are left inside women. Women bleed out on the table. And death is all around.
What exactly do Planned Parenthood and NARAL, then, find “reprehensible” about Kermit Gosnell’s clinic? It seems there are more similarities between Gosnell and Planned Parenthood than differences.
Not surprisingly, Cecile Richards (pictured), president of Planned Parenthood, and Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, are both using the details of the Gosnell trial to condemn the regulation of abortion clinics.
Comments from Hogue in the Huffington Post:
Instead of encouraging more restrictions on reproductive rights, Hogue said, the Gosnell trial should serve as a warning about the consequences of denying women access to safe and affordable abortion care.
“This is exactly what happens when you place undue restrictions and you try to shame women to keep them from exercising their constitutional right to safe and legal abortions,” Hogue told The Huffington Post in an interview. “You make them victims to people like Gosnell, because in their desperation they’ll turn anywhere. You want to drive people like Gosnell out of business? Then you actually support medical facilities and the right of women to safe and legal abortion.”
And Cecile Richards’ comments to Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman:
…I think that what is–in some ways, to me, it really underscores the danger of what’s happening in Congress, which is, what we’re seeing is this attempt to move a legal medical procedure that many women need–abortion–and putting it in the back alley again and putting it–putting folks like Planned Parenthood, who are responsible medical providers–we have the highest-quality staff. We have medical doctors from the most prestigious medical schools. Our doors are open to anyone to come and visit and see exactly what we do. It’s so important that we have providers who will provide women with excellent care who need it. And I think the case in Pennsylvania is just a case in point. My fear is that if the House of Representatives is successful and they put Planned Parenthood completely out of business, which is their goal, we are going to see more stories like this, because we are going to see women who will be desperate to terminate a pregnancy, and they will go anywhere to do it.
As President Obama headlines a Planned Parenthood gala fundraiser this coming Thursday evening, Americans have ample reason, once again, to question why Planned Parenthood should receive taxpayer funding.