Women’s health takes a hit

By Maggie Dewitte

“Safe and legal” abortions is so yesterday.

The US Supreme Court has made “UNsafe and legal” the new standard in the human abortion industry.

Here’s what happened:  The Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt a few weeks ago.

Texas legislators had passed into law a requirement that the human abortionist have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of his/her clinic.  And they required these facilities to simply meet the same basic health standards as other ambulatory surgical centers in the state.

In a 5 to 3 decision, the Court determined that human abortion clinics do not need to meet the same level of scrutiny as other medical clinics.  The decision is especially jarring in light of the fact that at least 2000 Texas women (using Planned Parenthood data) have required hospitalization this past decade due to complications from surgical abortions (pro life groups estimate the number is much higher).

This is a real war on women.

The Court puts access to abortion ahead of access to safety. What happened to the motto abortion advocates used to spout?  Remember President Clinton’s mantra, that human abortion should be “safe, legal, but rare?”

Safety has taken a back seat. In doing so, we risk the lives of thousands of women. Whether you are for or against abortion, common sense dictates support of common sense regulations for abortion clinics that put the reproductive health of healthy women at risk with each procedure.

Why would you want someone to enter a facility, have an invasive medical procedure performed on them, and know that clinic is not held to basic safety standards as those of a real health clinic?

I use the word “real” intentionally.

Human abortion clinics perform abortions on healthy women carrying healthy “infants”, to use Hillary Clinton’s word. Health has nothing to do with human abortion clinics.  An infant dies in almost all cases.  In those rare exceptions when the infant survives, he or she is usually maimed for life.

Women deserve better.

For the past 12 years, The American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Association have stood by a joint statement on patient safety for office-based surgery (Statement on Patient Safety Principles for Office-Based Surgery Utilizing Moderate Sedation/Analgesia, Deep Sedation/Analgesia, or General Anesthesia Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons Vol.89, No. 4, April 2004).

A core principle is that all physicians performing office-based surgery must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.  The court failed to understand what the experts in protecting people’s health have outlined.  The abortion industry, which ends the lives of a million infants each year, is evidently a protected class.

If you don’t believe that abortion clinics need regulation, I have just two words for you: Kermit Gosnell.  He is the late-term abortionist who ran the infamous “House of Horrors” in Philadelphia. He was convicted on three counts of first degree murder in 2013.  He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of patient Karnamaya Mongar, due to Gosnell’s botched abortion on her.

When Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” was raided, they found bags and bottles of aborted babies, body parts, and filthy, unsanitary medical equipment.  Prior to this raid, Gosnell’s facility had not been inspected for over 17 years.

Women have suffered a critical loss by this ruling.

The only ones hurt more than women by unsafe, but legal, human abortion clinics, are the children.

Maggie Dewitte is Executive Director of Iowans for Life. Sign their petition today.