News

By Hilary White

  ENGLEWOOD, February 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Health officials in New Jersey have shut down one of the State’s largest late term abortion facilities due to health and safety violations that constituted “deficient care”. The Metropolitan Medical Associates Englewood facility was licensed to commit abortions up to 24 weeks gestation.

  The violations posed an “immediate and serious risk of harm to patients.” The facility will be given the opportunity to dispute the health department’s findings before a complete list of violations is published.

  The Record reports that the health order cited problems “including but not limited to infection control, instruments, equipment used for sterilization of patient care use items and the processing of equipment.”

  Although the health department is not releasing details, it has ordered the facility to hire an infection control consultant who must submit weekly written reports.

  The investigation was a result of a complaint by Newark Beth Israel Medical Center after its emergency room treated a woman for complications following an abortion.

  Recent state records show that the facility kills more than 10,000 children a year. In 1997, the New York Times reported that the Englewood facility committed 1,500 late-term abortions a year.

  The Englewood facility, which has been operating since the 1970’s, is the site of regular prayer vigils by local people with up to 200 attending. In 2002, Archbishop John Meyers led a thousand people in a march past the facility, praying for an end to the taking of innocent lives there. Meyers and the marchers prayed “for those who have…made some terrible choices in regard to life.”

  The Record reported that although the health department did not say when or if the facility would be re-opened, the staff had assured callers that they would re-open next Tuesday.

  Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
  Us Supreme Court Refuses Appeal Against Law Restricting Pro-Life Protest
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/apr/01041703.html