Closings of abortion clinics continue; FDA consults on ‘morning-after’ pill; India’s PM pleads for protection of unborn girls

by Tom Strode                                                                                           Vol. XIX, No. 9, Nov/Dec 2006

A summer of judgment for abortion clinics continues as operations at six more abortion clinics were shut down recently in Alabama and Florida, maintaining a pattern that began developing in mid-June. The Alabama Department of Health announced Aug. 15 the suspension of the license of Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery for failing to have a backup physician in case one is needed after an abortion, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration ordered abortions halted at five clinics by Aug. 16 and suspended the medical license of their owner, James Pendergraft, on charges he had performed illegal, third-trimester abortions, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The actions followed abortion clinic closings earlier this summer in Hialeah, FL; Birmingham, AL; Wichita, KN, and Omaha, NB.

The closings continue a trend for abortion providers during the last two decades. The number of abortion providers in the United States has decreased by 37 percent since 1982, according to a 2003 report published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. That same study showed 87 percent of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider.

Alabama state health officer Don Williamson said the failure to have a second doctor to care for post-abortive women was “a very, very serious violation,” the newspaper reported. The closings of two clinics have prompted Alabama to begin inspecting abortion providers at least once a year, Williamson said.

“Abortion clinics haven’t been a priority because there isn’t a federal law that requires frequent inspections,” he said, according to the Advertiser. “But now we’re going to put them at a high priority, equivalent to nursing homes.”

John Giles, president of Christian Coalition of Alabama, said in a written release the state’s action “confirms that the abortion industry is only interested in profits and not the healthcare of women before or after an abortion. In fact, women leave abortion facilities all over this state and report the buildings look as if they are furnished from a second hand store and resemble a third world medical facility.”

The A GYN Diagnostic Center in Hialeah, FL, surrendered its license to the state government after police found the body of a dead baby in a biohazard bag at the facility.

The action came during an investigation into whether a baby was born but allowed to die after a failed abortion July 20. An 18-year-old woman told police she gave birth to a boy at the clinic, according to The Miami Herald. An anonymous phone caller told the police a baby had been born at the clinic, but authorities were unable to find a child when they arrived, according to Channel 4, the CBS affiliate in Miami. Another call prompted the police to return nine days later to the clinic, where they found the body, Channel 4 reported.

An autopsy was performed on the dead child – who weighed about two to three pounds and was about 12 inches long – July 29, but the results are still not available, The Herald reported. Police ordered the clinic closed the same day while the investigation went on.

Siomara Senises, the Hialeah clinic’s owner, voluntarily gave up her operating license, according to World magazine. She surrendered her license to run a Miramar, FL, abortion clinic in 2004 after it was disclosed she had permitted unlicensed workers, including a janitor and medical student, to do abortions, World reported.

Other clinics that either were closed or surrendered their licenses were: Women’s Services P.C. in Omaha, NB, June 30; Central Women’s Services in Wichita, KN, June 29; Summit Medical Center in Birmingham, AL, June 14. [BP]