Month: April 2018

Facility That Botched Abortion Also Trying to Overturn State Inspection Law

Over the weekend Operation Rescue released a story about Little Rock Family Planning Services, a surgical abortion facility in Little Rock that apparently botched an abortion on an underage girl in March.

Operation Rescue reports 60 incidents like this one have occurred at Little Rock Family Planning Services since 1999, according to records the group obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

There’s another side to this story: Little Rock Family Planning Services currently is working with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU to overturn a state law requiring abortion clinics to be properly inspected.

Last year the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 383, which clarifies that abortion clinics will be inspected at least annually; that the inspections will be unannounced; and that any clinic that fails inspection will have its license to perform abortions suspended immediately.

In June Little Rock Family Planning Services — along with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU — filed a lawsuit in federal court trying to have Act 383 struck down.

The lawsuit argues Act 383 is too broad and makes it possible for an abortion clinic to be closed for any infraction — including an infraction that is not related to healthcare.

I have to ask: Is it simply a coincidence that an abortion facility with a history of sending women to the hospital doesn’t want the Health Department inspecting — and closing — abortion clinics?

Photo Credit: By jordanuhl7 [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

READ MORE

Documents Indicate Arkansas Clinic Botched Abortion: Operation Rescue

According to Operation Rescue, a surgical abortion facility in Little Rock requested an ambulance last month after apparently botching an abortion.

Operation Rescue writes,

It began on March 31, 2018, when pro-life activists photographed an ambulance at Little Rock Family Planning.

Pro-life activist Mary Silfies told Operation Rescue that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for 911 records related to the incident was denied by the Little Rock City Attorney “because it involved a juvenile.”

A second FOIA request was made to the publicly-funded ambulance company, Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS), which complied with a heavily redacted audio recording and Computer Aided Dispatch printout.

A close inspection of the CAD printout revealed under one of the redactions that the young patient suffered hemorrhaging and lacerations.

The 911 recording, which had information about the patient’s condition removed, indicated that the patient was located “in the procedure room with the doctor.” This was an indication that the patient’s condition was serious, otherwise, she would have been sent to the side or back door of the abortion facility for ambulance pick-up.

However, the recording did contain a revealing question at the end of the conversation between the 911 dispatcher and the abortion facility caller.

“Alright, do you have AED there,” asked the dispatcher, to which the call replied in the affirmative.

AED is short for “automated external defibrillator,” which is used to check a patient’s heart rhythm and can send a shock to restore a normal heartbeat. It is also used in the event of a cardiac arrest.

“The fact that the dispatcher was inquiring about the presence of the AED was another indication that young woman was in pretty bad shape,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

Altogether, Operation Rescue says this is the third time this year an ambulance has been called out to the surgical abortion clinic in Little Rock.

You can read more here.

READ MORE