WILMINGTON, DE, June 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The nurses who exposed the “meat-market” conditions at a “nightmare” abortion facility say Planned Parenthood turned a deaf ear to their repeated complaints and pleas for action. Over the weekend, the abortionist who worked at the clinic and oversaw the nurses said he agrees.
“Planned Parenthood is partly to blame for all this,” said Timothy Liveright, the 68-year-old abortionist who, according to the nurses and the state attorney general's office, is responsible for many of the violations in question. “They've allowed this circus to continue. It's partly because they never listened to these women to begin with.”
The abortionist told The News Journal that he is being made a “scapegoat” for the problems at the clinic.
Joyce Vasikonis and Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich said they alerted the abortion provider about the unsanitary practices of the Wilmington, Delaware, Planned Parenthood – where they say instruments were not sterilized between patients, Dr. Liveright reused bloody gloves, untrained staff members oversedated women and let them wander around, and women were rushed onto tables still stained with the blood of the previous patient.
Women “could be at risk of getting hepatitis, even AIDS,” said Vasikonis.
“It would take me all afternoon to describe all the deficiencies I found at Planned Parenthood of Delaware during the 10 months I worked there,” she told the Delaware State Senate last week. “What I found was that the culture of Planned Parenthood of Delaware was focused on maximizing profits and the bottom line, not quality health care for women.”
After the nurses blew the whistle, “There was no real response to fix it,” she said.
Planned Parenthood Delaware CEO Ruth Lytle-Barnaby initially denounced the “speculation and falsehoods” about its Wilmington branch. In April, the group closed the office for a “routine” cleaning before promptly going back into business, although it was several weeks before it resumed surgical abortions.
Liveright, who called the response to one of his own botched abortions a “tempest in a teapot,” said the office brought some of the criticism on itself.
“People can complain about nit-picky stuff, and the nurses were on a rampage because no one would listen within the organization [Planned Parenthood],” he said.
Instead of any real reform, the nurses say the nation's leading abortion provider set its sights on them.
“I also endured a hostile environment at Planned Parenthood after reporting the horrendous conditions that occurred there,” Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich told the state Senate.
Vasikonis agreed the “culture” of malfeasance “seemed to seep out of the walls. It seemed to infect everybody, and the people it didn't infect were attacked for [holding] different views.”
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Planned Parenthood was far from alone in ignoring the pair's complaints. The nurses say they got “the run-around” from a myriad of state regulatory agencies inlucing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the state Division of Professional Regulation, the governor's office, the Board of Nursing, and Delaware Health and Social Services.
The Division of Professional Regulation finally told Werbrich it found “several small housekeeping issues,” which led her to conclude they were either too “ignorant” to find the violations, or they tipped off Planned Parenthood about their impending visit.
Subsequent investigations found the doctor to be “a clear and immediate danger to the public” and the facility guilty of more than a dozen violations of the state code.
Despite their inaction, Liveright said he would work for Planned Parenthood again.
The nurses, though, say they are still haunted by what they saw inside the office.
“I cannot help but to think of all the patients who are continuing to be mistreated and uncared for at Planned Parenthood,” Mitchell-Werbrich said. “I toss and turn and feel helpless that I cannot do more to help them.”