Abortion facilities with sordid pasts closing down

Following a trend of abortion facility closures, two more facilities, Woman Care of Southfield PC in Lathrup Village, Michigan, and the Texas Ambulatory Surgical Center in Houston, Texas have shut down. Both facilities have a history of incidences and safety concerns.

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society confirmed the closure of Woman Care, as reported by LifeNews.com. At least three women died from abortions there: Chevon Williams, Regina Johnson, and Tamiia Russell. In addition, a woman known as Jessica was injured during her 23-week abortion there. Woman Care had failed four inspections in 2014, prompting an emergency shut-down. It reopened two years later.

Incidents at Woman Care go back years. It was not just women who were treated with such disdain, but their aborted children as well. In articles for LifeNews and Pro-Life Action League, Monica Miller detailed how remains of abortion victims were found in the facility’s dumpster. When legislation was brought forth to ensure fetal remains would be treated with the dignity and respect all humans deserve, abortion advocates fought against it.

Michigan, where Woman Care is located, has pro-life laws in place and these incidents raise questions as to whether or not abortion procedures were performed legally at the center. Concerns include:

• Russell was 15 when she died. The abortion which took her life (and that of her preborn child’s) at such a young age was not only tragic, it would have been illegal unless there was parental consent.

• Jessica’s 23-week abortion was close to the viability cutoff Michigan has, highlighting the dangers of late-term abortions. Children born at 23 weeks have survived.

• According to Miller, facility owner Jacob Kalo “failed to follow requirements related to patient signatures on ultrasound acknowledgment consent forms.” He also “failed to let patients observe ultrasound images,” in violation of state law.

• And, “Kalo failed to have written transfer agreement with any local hospital for patients requiring Emergency Room care.” If Kalo did have an agreement, the lives of the three women may have been saved.

The best things for Michigan women and their children is for Woman Care to have closed. Operation Rescue notes, however, that the center is up for lease, making it possible that another abortionist will take over.

Notorious late-term abortionist Douglas Karpen, said to be the “Texas Gosnell,” performed procedures at the Texas Ambulatory Surgical Center. While it is not clear what Karpen will be doing next, besides “moving on to other things,” from his Houston location, he will no longer be operating the Texas Ambulatory Surgical Center as of later this month, according to Operation Rescue.

It’s an oft-repeated claim that late-term abortionist and convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell was an “outlier” in the abortion industry. However, Karpen’s methods were disturbingly similar to Gosnell. His nurses came forward to describe how Karpen would allegedly murder babies born alive from late-term abortions, which were performed after the then state limit of 24-weeks.

Karpen has a whole host of legal issues going back decades, including botched abortions and the deaths of patients, according to reports from Operation Rescue. Thanks to pro-life Texas laws known as HB 2, Karpen was unable to perform abortions when he couldn’t comply with the laws. The challenged HB 2 laws were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year in the 5-3 Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstetdt decision.

While Gosnell is serving a life sentence, Karpen has yet to face justice for his alleged crimes. As Operation Rescue has summed up, he:

[…] is currently the subject of criminal referrals made to the Department of Justice and the Texas Attorney General’s office by the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. […] That report, which included a video interview of the former employees released by Life Dynamics, Inc., prompted a grand jury “investigation” that was tainted by collusion between former Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson and Karpen’s criminal defense attorney Chip Lewis.

Karpen may be retiring, though “that does not absolve him of responsibility for any crimes he may have committed,” Operation Rescue president Troy Newman mentioned, noting that “[…] Texas law enforcement agencies need to rush over to his clinic as soon as possible and seize evidence before he moves out and gets rid of it.”

The mentioned facilities are noteworthy examples, and just as Gosnell was not an outlier, neither are these. Abortion facilities, in general, are not known to be safe examples of health clinics. Abortion advocates continue to prop them up, however, including pro-abortion justices on the Court, who ignored evidence about Whole Woman’s Health’s unsanitary conditions and allowed it to reopen. Ignoring the safety violations of abortion facilities has become a trend throughout the country, especially in states where there is one abortion facility – kept open despite their spotty records.