Report: Abortionists named in 1,400 safety complaints

Planned Parenthood (Photo: Twitter)

A new study that collected evidence from 32 states over the last eight years found abortions have been named in 1,400 health and safety complaints, and their work has left multiple women dead.

Besides the unborn infants.

Several victims bled to death because of injuries inflicted during an abortion due to the failure of the abortionists to monitor them and provide life-saving treatment.

The report, "Unsafe: How the Public Health Crisis in America's Abortion Clinics Endangers Women," was released recently by Americans United for Life.

It follows on the release throughout 2015 of a series of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood and other abortion-industry players negotiating over the prices of the body parts of unborn children. They discussed how abortion procedures can be adjusted to salvage the body parts, even though federal law bans changing procedures or making a profit.

The impact of the Planned Parenthood sting included an intense defunding effort by states, which Barack Obama has tried to stem by requiring states to give money to abortionists. Also, a Senate committee has referred several Planned Parenthood affiliates and others to the Department of Justice for investigation and possible prosecution.

Read the tested and proven strategies to defeat the abortion cartel, in "Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time."

Americans United for Life said it reviewed cases involving 227 abortion providers in 32 states and found that from 2008 to 2016 they were cited "for more than 1,400 health and safety deficiencies."

See the group's video on its work:

The organization concluded that "the practice of abortion in America has devolved into the 'red light district' of medicine and is populated by dangerous, substandard providers. 'Unsafe' is both a 'snapshot' in time, focusing only on abortion practices since 2008, and the 'tip' of the proverbial iceberg, convincingly demonstrating a nationwide pattern of abuse that characterizes an industry that fights to keep profits high and standards low."

The report said the nation has a shortage of laws to protect women in abortion businesses, lacks requirements for reporting and limits publicly available information in other locations.

"We can easily deduce, therefore, that the epidemic of substandard abortion practice is worse than even these pages show."

It cited the Supreme Court's recent decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, which prioritizes "access" to abortion, as a signal the situation will get worse.

"It will certainly get worse unless pro-life Americans and their representatives take immediate action to confront and remedy the abortion industry's dangerous practices and the rejection of medically appropriate health and safety standards of patient care," the report said.

"Hellerstedt … presented the [Supreme] Court with the opportunity to strike a decisive blow for women's health and safety and to ensure that abortion providers – who are often more interested in maintaining profitability than in safeguarding women's health and safety – comply with medically endorsed and widely implemented standards of care. Unfortunately, the court declined."

Instead, it took up the mantra of "mere access" to abortion.

"It is important to remember that convicted Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell provided 'mere access' to abortion in a clinic where a woman died because a stretcher could not fit through the hallways, where unsterilized instruments spread infections, and where parts of unborn babies were stored in jars and cat food cans like macabre trophies," the report said.

"Moreover, as detailed in this special report and in amicus curiae briefs filed in the Supreme Court in support of the Texas law, Kermit Gosnell is not an aberration, but the norm in an industry desperate to avoid meaningful regulation and oversight."

The report pointed out that the Roe v. Wade decision creating a constitutional "right" to abortion for women but "did not … equate that 'right' with the abortion industry's right to be free from appropriate regulation and oversight."

Among the victims profiled in the report:

Ayanna Byer, who now has a legal claim against Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs because when she decided not to go through with an abortion, she allegedly was given an abortion "against her will." "She was septic with a high fever," the report explained, and ended up in an emergency room for a "high-risk surgery."
"B.M." was a 15-year-old who was sent home after abortionist Lawrence Miller "knew the abortion he had just performed … was incomplete and that he had possibly perforated her uterus." He was ordered to take 20 hours of continuing medical education.
Ying Chen, 30, died after she had an adverse reaction to an anesthetic given her by abortionist Andrew Rutland. "Rutland failed to recognize that Ying was in trouble and did not respond to the toxicity in a timely manner," the report said.

The facts uncovered about the actual practice in the industry are at odds with the abortionists' claims of efforts to guard and protect women, the report stated.

"For example, in April 2016, a Virginia abortion clinic was shut down after investigators issued a 52-page deficiency report which included evidence that a staff member assisted in an abortion after unclogging a toilet but before changing scrubs or properly cleaning her hands, that an abortionist saved a blood-smeared surgical gown for future use rather than putting it into the laundry, and that surgical equipment was smeared with 'foreign material.'"

The study showed the top 10 violations found in abortion businesses are a failure to ensure a safe and sanitary environment and failure to follow infection control policies, a failure to accurately document patient records and keep patient medical information confidential, a failure to ensure staff are properly trained, having unlicensed or unqualified personnel providing treatment and having expired medications.

Others were failure to maintain required equipment, adopt health and safety protocols, handle medications correctly, comply with physical plant standards and monitor patients.

In just the first category, the report documented how evidence of blood was routinely found on exam tables, dry blood and rust on equipment, dried blood on instruments labeled as "sterilized," bodily remains were stored in the same location as medications or "food," and "a recovery room technician was observed retrieving a paper towel from the garbage and using the same paper towel to cover a tray that would later serve food to patients."

The report used Florida as a case study.

"A review of abortion facility reports from 2009 to 2014 reveals numerous and serious violations of basic health and safety standards, including allowing unlicensed staff to provide patient care, failing to have a defibrillator on site in case of emergency, expired medications including expired emergency medications available for use on patients, facilities without medical directors, and dirty or rusty surgical equipment."

Many of the businesses there have been cited multiple times.

"A careful review of the available evidence from Florida also accurately paints a picture of the American abortion industry as a whole. It reveals a profit-motivated business which cavalierly ignores the law, discounts the documented dangers inherent in abortion, perpetuates and defends its dangerous practices, and endangers the lives and the health of women."

The report also cited the most "notorious" abortionists who have been cited for failing to meet safety standards.

One is James Pendergraft, who operated in Florida.

"Shockingly, James Pendergraft has had his Florida medical license suspended four times," the report notes. "However, these actions have not halted his disregard for the law and affinity for money-making abortion schemes that put women at risk."

Further, there are other problems that appeared, including "at least 13 abortion providers in at least 6 states either failed to report suspected sexual abuse of a minor or failed to implement practices to protect minors from ongoing sexual abuse: Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas."

Also, at least 30 abortion providers in at least eight states "failed to provide or post all required informed consent information," the report said. Nor were all reporting requirements followed.

"'Repeat offenders' are prevalent in at least 11 states including Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi (where the state's only abortion clinic regularly violates health and safety standards), North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. At least 65 chronic offenders were identified in these states."

A new danger that is becoming more apparent is from the "circuit rider" abortionists.

These are abortionists who travel, sometime long distances, to provide abortions in a region far from their regular practice. Then they leave.

"The rising prevalence of circuit rider abortionists shatters the myth that abortion is 'between a woman and her doctor.' While an in-town abortionist rarely has any meaningful doctor-patient relationship with a woman seeking an abortion, fly-in abortionists utterly disprove the forecast of the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade that their decision would place abortion between a 'physician, in consultation with his patient.'"

The circuit riders are mostly "absent" or "unavailable" if there are post-abortive needs.

Read the full 206-page report.

The Christian Institute in the U.K. noted, "The report relays the tragic stories of Jennifer Moribelli, who suffered massive internal bleeding and died shortly after having an abortion; Atonesha Ross, who died at 18 after a botched '5-minute abortion'; and Tonya Reaves, who bled to death because an abortionist did not transport her to a hospital for more than five hours."

One of the videos released last year by the Center for Medical Progress showed an official admitting Planned Parenthood sells fully intact aborted babies.

Crushing babies

In the first undercover video released by CMP, Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on crushing babies.

"We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I'm not gonna crush that part, I'm gonna basically crush below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact," she said.

See the first video:

In the second video, Planned Parenthood's Mary Gatter discussed how her compensation for organs could rise when she said, "I want a Lamborghini."

See her comments:

The fifth video released shows Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood's Houston clinic discussing "intact fetal cadavers":

The seventh video has the testimony of a Planned Parenthood worker who tapped an aborted infant's heart and saw it start beating.

Read the tested and proven strategies to defeat the abortion cartel, in "Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time."