Dangerous Michigan abortion facility may reopen

Abortionist Jacob Kalo currently operates four abortion facilities in the state. On November 21, 2014, the state closed Kalo’s fifth abortion facility, Women’s Center of Southfield, after suspending its license for failing to pass several health inspections. But this abortion facility may now be given the chance to reopen.

According to pro-life activist Lynn Mills, who has researched Kalo’s record, the abortionist took over the Southfield abortion facility from troubled abortion provider, Abraham Alberto Hodari. Under Hodari, the facility was one of only a handful of abortion facilities in the state that held a license. Within a year of taking over the clinic, Kalo’s Southfield facility failed to pass several state inspections, according to Mills. As a result, in 2014, the state suspended the license of the Southfield clinic with the goal of a permanent suspension.

An October 7, 2014, letter from the state details the violations found at Kalo’s facility during one of the inspections:

• No hand hygiene was observed being performed by Dr. Kalo. (Not before or after ultrasound exam, Not before gloving for procedure or after removing gloves at end of procedure)
• No vaginal prep done. (Betadine was available in OR)
• No inspection of the POC (Productions of Conception) was observed by Dr. Kalo or qualified person assisting the physician prior to disposing of the pathologic specimen by the medical assistant.
• Patient’s belongings – purse, shoes, and clothing stored in an open plastic basket in OR during procedure.
• During procedure, the RN was observed going into the medication supply cupboard with contaminated gloves. The RN drew medication from a multidose vial into an unlabeled syringe and gave it to Dr. Kalo who administered it, without the RN showing him the vial for verification of medication provided.
• No hand hygiene observed by Medical Assistant after removing gloves after washing dirty instruments used during the procedure.
• At end of procedure the Medical Assistant used a common bucket (kept in the OR) containing tap water to suck fluid through the bloody used suction aspiration tubing from the procedure. (Staff confirmed the bucket contained no disinfectant, and the bucket was being used for multiple patients.)
• Following the procedure Dr. Kalo was observed handling the bloody used suction tip and tubing in the instrument cleaning sink without gloves or proper PPE.

Despite these serious violations, the state has now decided to allow Kalo’s Southfield abortion facility to reopen. This information comes to Live Action News in a document provided by Lynn Mills:

According to the September 30, 2015, agreement issued to Kalo from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the state plans to dissolve its suspension of the abortion facility with a few stipulations. First, the order requires that Kalo pay the state $25,000. According to the Stipulations Agreement, the facility’s license will remain suspended until Kalo complies all applicable requirements of the Public Health Safety Code. The state will also require the Southfield abortion facility to pass at least one unannounced inspection. Then, if the facility reopens, it will be placed on probation for at least one year.

Mills told Live Action News that she believes the state is putting the women of Michigan at risk by allowing Kalo’s facility to reopen, and said that in response to the state’s decision, she has filed a complaint with the medical licensing board detailing what the state found in their inspection. Mills later discovered from a FOIA request provided by another source that there are two additional allegations filed against the abortionist. The open records response was obtained Live Action News and reads in part:

There are three open allegations on file regarding Jacob Kalo as follows: File No. 135808 was opened December 16, 2014, File No. 136671 was opened March 2, 2015, and File No. 137803 was opened June 2, 2015. The files currently remain open.

“Kalo failed to maintain basic proper hand washing and hygiene requirements; that alone should set off warning flags and alarm everyone,” Mills points out. Although the document says the state is requiring that Kalo’s other four abortion facilities be inspected, Mills said that since the law requiring abortion facility inspections and licensing went into effect in 2013, the state has yet to inspect those facilities. The Southfield location remains closed for the time being.