BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, May 11, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An abortion facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana linked to notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell has continued to operate even after investigations uncovered a long history of dangerous criminal and medical violations and after the National Abortion Federation (NAF) revoked the abortion facility’s membership, LifeSiteNews.com has learned.
According to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report that uncovered the chilling practices at Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” clinic in Philadelphia, the Delta Clinic is owned by Leroy Brinkley, who also owns Atlantic Women’s Medical Services, located in Wilmington, Delaware. Gosnell, who is facing the death penalty for allegedly murdering seven newborn infants as well as a former adult client, was employed at the Wilmington clinic, where he would sometimes work when not at his Philadelphia facility.
Additionally, one of Gosnell’s employees, Eileen O’Neill, was a former employee at Delta, and was introduced to Gosnell by Brinkley. O’Neill was arrested with Gosnell and is accused of falsely representing herself as a doctor to patients at Gosnell’s Philadelphia practice.
Delta has been the scene of Gosnell-like practices for years, with massive state and federal regulation failures, botched abortions, including the deaths of at least two women, the use of unlicensed doctors, and extensive falsification of records – much of which has been frankly admitted to by the clinic.
Earlier this year Louisiana Senator David Vitter wrote to Governor Bobby Jindal calling for an investigation into the facility, and possibly its closure. “Recent news reports connecting the Delta Clinic to the allegations being charged against this horrific abortionist in Philadelphia could justify shutting down the Delta Clinic, and we must take the appropriate steps to prevent endangering the lives of Louisiana women and children,” he said.
However, despite the heightened public scrutiny of the facility in the wake of the Gosnell arrests, it is still business as usual at Delta.
One victim of the Delta clinic, referred to as “Jane Doe” for confidentiality reasons, told LSN this week that after two abortion pills prescribed by the clinic during her 2009 abortion failed, doctors at Delta botched a D&C abortion procedure which she says necessitated a hysterectomy a year later.
“I tried to file medical malpractice against them, because due to the mutilation they did to me, I had to have a hysterectomy,” Jane Doe told LSN.
“However, the attorney says he cannot ‘prove it’ because a year had passed, no doctor documented a reason. When I had the biopsy of the abnormal tissue during the hysterectomy, the OBGYN said its, ‘Old Scarring.’ The only surgical procedure that I ever had was the abortion. So, I know that’s why I had scar tissue.”
In a witness affidavit from April 2011, Jane Doe recounted the physical and verbal abuse she suffered at the hands of the abortionist and workers at Delta.
Doe says she remembered herself and other clients being “herded like cattle” by “rude” workers at the clinic. During her D&C operation, Doe says she was yelled at and threatened physically by the abortionist and never given any type of anesthesia.
“I was having surgery with no type of anesthesia whatsoever and I was told not to move due to pain or Doctor would yell at me more … It hurt so badly,” said Doe.
Following her hysterectomy last year, Doe attempted to obtain her record from the Delta Clinic, but without success. “They are always closed when I go there. When I call they answer and are rude and don’t care about my records. Plus, they say they are ‘really not even open.’ I wouldn’t trust the records anyway as I have read another affidavit from a former worker that explains that every patients’ records are the same routine answers,” Doe told LSN.
“Jane Doe” is not the only victim from the Delta Clinic. Pro-lifers from the Baton Rouge Holocaust Memorial for the unborn, formerly the site of the old Delta Clinic, have watched the abortion facility for years. They have obtained state-documented evidence indicating child molestation, the bringing of at least one underage girl across a state line for an abortion, and numerous Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations.
Upon the request of Attorney Mike Johnson for the Holocaust Memorial, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) conducted a thorough investigation of Delta in 2009.
The result of the investigation was a 41-page Statement of Deficiencies.
Among violations noted by the DHH, Delta was accused of failing to “ensure sterilization of syringes and intravenous injections … to prevent infection and cross-contamination,” failing “to provide pre-abortion counselling as mandated by law,” failing to “provide required records to OPH Vital Records Registry,” failing to “ensure pre-op assessments” for patient medical conditions, and failing to “maintain confidentiality of patient information and records.”
Most significantly, Delta was also found to have “fraudulently pre-printed all of its state forms … indicating there were no complications with any abortions”; Delta has admitted to the fraud.
Pro-lifers say that Delta’s falsification of reports also means that the entire state’s records on abortion statistics for years past are grossly underestimated.
“This practice of falsifying legal documents to the DHH’s Office of Vital Records…is tantamount to the largest travesty of justice ever perpetrated by the medical establishment under the guise of women’s reproductive health care,” Richard Mahoney of the Holocaust Memorial told LSN.
While the Louisiana DHH now watches the clinic closely and conducts routine investigations, attorneys and those involved in the case maintain this is insufficient.
An attorney for the Holocaust Memorial told LSN that the Delta case indicates the kind of activity that could be going on at any number of abortion clinics without public knowledge. He has demanded that corrections be made to all Delta’s falsified records and adequate penalties issued for offenses.
Witness “Jane Doe” also testified to the need for greater public awareness. “The public needs to know that you only have one body and that child is one unique innocent child. Delta offers no counselling,” she told LSN. “The Doctor butchered me to say the least. That is my opinion.”
“I live life every day in mourning that I wish I never had the abortion and grieve for the child I should be raising,” she said. “I wonder if I was having a girl or boy. I dream at night about a little baby girl, so I refer to the unborn baby as ‘she.’ I even named her without even knowing that the baby would have been female.”
“I have to live with the choice I made, the scars that I have and the images I see at night. There is always a better way. Seek it!”