Tuesday September 21, 2010
Louisiana Abortion Clinic Cited for Danger to Health and Safety to Remain Open
By Peter J. Smith
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, September 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has been denied again the opportunity to keep closed an abortion facility cited for substandard medical protocols. A state judge has ruled that the abortion business, which performs between 200-300 abortions per month, can remain open while it appeals the DHH decision to shut it down.
Judge Mike Caldwell of the 19th Judicial District Court ruled that Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport could continue to remain open and operating while the DHH’s case against the abortion facility made its way through the court system. Caldwell’s decision reinforces the temporary restraining order he issued a week ago to re-open the Shreveport clinic after the DHH had closed it.
The Hope Medical Group for Women is the first abortion clinic that was shut down under a state law passed in June. The law empowers the DHH to shut down the operation of an abortion facility if DHH investigators find the facility is violating the law and poses “an immediate threat to the health and safety of a patient or client.” The law, passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the legislature, declared that the DHH would have the same authority over abortion facilities as it already has over hospitals.
On September 3, the DHH revoked the operating license of Hope Medical after DHH agents found the abortion facility’s staff failed to provide women a physical examination prior to abortions. Physicals are necessary to screen for and prevent devastating health reactions to anesthesia.
DHH agents found that in 14 cases of abortion they reviewed, the abortion facility did not have a trained professional monitor its clients respiratory, cardiovascular, and consciousness levels after the administration of intravenous and gaseous anesthesia.
The danger of such lapses to women’s lives was highlighted by last week’s sentencing of a Massachusetts abortionist to six months in prison over the anesthesia-related death of a client, who went into cardiac arrest on the operating table. Dr. Rapin Osathanondh was found criminally negligent in the death of Laura Hope Smith, 22, because he failed to have her vital signs monitored while he aborted her unborn child. (see coverage)
“We are shocked that a state court judge would order that the Shreveport abortion facility can remain open awaiting appeal even though it was found to have ‘significant health and safety risks’ to women,” said Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of the Louisiana Right to Life Federation. “The Louisiana Legislature overwhelmingly authorized the state Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) to immediately suspend the licenses of abortion facilities that exhibit this behavior, and in his ruling, Judge Caldwell has spurned this legislation and the work of the DHH in favor of an unsafe abortion facility.
“Our state should have the right to keep citizens safe by closing abortion facilities that cross the line.”
The Shreveport Times reports the Hope Medical Group is fighting back against the law. In addition to challenges to the DHH closure, they also filed suit on Monday challenging the constitutionality of the law.
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
Judge Orders Louisiana Abortion Clinic Back in Business – For Now
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10091501.html
Abortionist Pleads ‘Guilty’ to Manslaughter – Sentenced to 6 Months in Jail
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10091405.html
Louisiana Abortion Clinic Shut Down for Ignoring “Most Basic” Medical Practices
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10090707.html