Friday June 11, 2010
27-Year-Old Abortion Facility Closed Down Over Health Code Violations
By James Tillman
MONTGOMERY, Alabama, June 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The Montgomery, Alabama location for the Summit Medical Centers chain of abortion mills has closed after the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) produced a 68-page long document detailing numerous violations of state law and of medical standards.
The center had been operating on a probationary license since October 2006 due to the legal and health deficiencies found on a 2006 survey.
Among medical deficiencies, the ADPH document notes failure to inspect medical equipment annually, failure to wash hands and medical equipment in accord with the guidelines of the Center for Disease Control, failure to provide for infection control in the recovery room, failure to provide a sufficient number of staff to care for patients in the recovery room, failure to keep adequate medical records, and failure to ensure the availability of emergency drugs and oxygen for use by authorized employees.
Furthermore, expired medications were not removed from the clinic, calls from patients with potential medical conditions were not returned in a timely fashion, and medical waste was not disposed of correctly but instead given to normal trash collectors.
Such gross negligence resembles the unsanitary conditions that have been found in other abortion mills, such as the New Jersey abortion center where forceps crusted with “blood-like residue” were found and rusted crochet hooks were used to remove IUDs. Similarly unsanitary disposal of medical waste has been exposed in a Philadelphia abortuary.
Aside from such serious medical failures, the clinic also failed to follow various laws designed to bring about informed consent and protect minors from abuse.
The ADPH document notes that the clinic failed to develop policies in accord with state law regarding parental consent, suspected abuse, or neglect of a minor, that it failed to inform a woman of her right to view an educational videotape as part of the counseling process, and that it failed to observe the 24-hour waiting period required before abortions.
Such problems are typical of abortion clinics across the country; the Mona Lisa project run by Live Action has found multiple cases in which clinics failed to report apparent cases of statutory rape.
Other abortion clinics run by Summit Medical Centers have had similar problems of gross incompetence. In 2006 one such center had its license suspended after a nurse gave a woman an ultrasound and concluded that the woman was only six weeks pregnant when she was actually in the third trimester. The nurse gave the woman the abortion drug RU 486, which resulted in the woman’s visit to the hospital six days later with the baby’s head protruding before delivering the dead six and one-quarter pound child.
This newly-closed clinic is the last of the Summit clinics to operate in Alabama. The website of the clinic now directs patients on a “short 2.5 hour drive” to Summit Medical Associates in Atlanta, Georgia.
See related stories on LifeSiteNews.com:
Two Dozen Frozen Fetuses Found in Grisly Abortuary Police Raid
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10022307.html
Report Reveals Filthy Conditions, Health Violations at N.J. Abortion Center
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07032010.html