Until last week, podiatrists cutting out ingrown toenails were more regulated in Missouri than abortionists cutting out preborn babies.

In fact, until last week, three of the four Missouri mills were not regulated at all. Only one chop shop in the entire state had previously fit the "51 percent or more of the revenues … from abortions" criteria for Missouri's already sub-par abortion clinic regulations.

(And whose idea was it to separate out and lower abortion clinic standards to begin with? One guess.)

But on July 6, Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation into law mandating that facilities where babies are scrapped will have to meet the same criteria as facilities where teeth are scraped.

That's tough to argue against, but Planned Parenthood, which owns two of the four affected mills, may sue to block it.

According to the Associated Press, PP "claimed the law could force it to spend up to $2 million to remodel one of its clinics and halt medical abortions at another site."

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Just how shoddy can a mill be if it will cost $2 million to make it as safe and clean as a facility where pink eye is treated?

PP strenuously objected, saying the law would "drastically limit Missouri women's access to safe and legal abortions," "impose… onerous requirements that are not medically necessary and will shut down abortion services," and "create barriers to reproductive health care."

PP didn't say how elevating standards of clinics where babies are destroyed to standards of clinics where moles are destroyed was so onerous. Arguing specifics would be counterproductive. In fact, seems to me even arguing vague issues is counterproductive.

Actually, I am looking at those onerous requirements and would like PP to tell us exactly which ones stink. I'm quoting all directly from the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services Ambulatory Surgical Center, or ASC, regulations. The list is not complete but provides a sampling of the new abortion "barriers":

• Roads, walks, ramps and entrances shall be accessible to the physically handicapped;

• Two or more patient change areas … with access to toilets; secure storage facilities for each patient's street clothing and belongings;

• One scrub-up facility for each operating room;

• Corridors providing access to operating rooms and postanesthesia recovery rooms shall be at least eight feet wide [to accommodate stretchers];

• At least two exits, remote from each other, shall be provided for each floor;

• Exit doors and doors to operating rooms and recovery rooms shall be at least 44 inches wide [to accommodate stretchers];

• The floor finish in operating rooms shall be seamless with an integral base covered with the floor and tightly sealed with the wall;

• Walls shall be smooth and easily cleanable. Walls in operating rooms and recovery rooms shall have waterproof painted, glazed or similar washable surfaces;

• Walls and ceiling surfaces of all required corridors and exitways shall be of a [flame-treated] material;

• Paper towel dispensers and soap dispensers shall be provided at all lavatories used for hand washing;

• Smoke detectors shall be installed in all habitable spaces;

• A generator with on-site fuel storage for at least four hours of operation under load shall be provided as an emergency source of electricity. …;

• If patient services are located on any floor other than the grade level, at least one elevator is to be provided;

• An intercom … connecting each operating room and the recovery room area to a constantly staffed location shall be installed to summon assistance during emergencies;

• Air-conditioning, heating and ventilating equipment shall be provided, maintained and operated so as to provide an adequate degree of comfort to all occupants;

• All air delivered to operating rooms shall be delivered at or near the ceiling of the room served and all air returned or exhausted shall be removed near the floor level.

So which are onerous, Planned Parenthood? Perhaps PP executives mistakenly smell old blood that has seeped through the peel-and-stick tile on their operating room floors.

Or perhaps PP doesn't like other ASC guidelines stating physicians must be licensed to practice in the state, or that at least one physician must be on premises at all times a patient is recovering, or that ASCs must have working emergency equipment like defibrillators, or that sterile supplies and equipment cannot be mixed with unsterile supplies.

Can someone tell me the difference again between legal and illegal abortions?

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