Facility That Botched Abortion Also Trying to Overturn State Inspection Law

Abortion, , ,

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

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Documents Indicate Arkansas Clinic Botched Abortion: Operation Rescue

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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.

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Arkansas Pro-Life Leader: Issue 1 Puts a Price Tag on Human Life

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Yesterday Arkansas Right to Life Executive Director Rose Mimms published an op-ed at TownHall.com regarding Issue 1 — a proposed constitutional amendment restricting noneconomic damages juries can award in lawsuits — writing,

Issue One would put an arbitrary cap of $500,000 on non-economic and caps punitive damages. In real life this means that if a 40 year old successful business man is killed negligently then his life could be worth millions because you could calculate his current earnings and multiply them out for the future. If a stay at home mom, a child or infant, a retired veteran, an individual with Down Syndrome or other genetic disorder who isn’t employed or a nursing home resident who dies as a result of abuse or someone else’s error or negligence then those lives are all capped at a value never to exceed $500,000. The jury simply can’t award a family more, even if it wanted to do so. Think of your loved ones, would you ever put a price tag on their lives?

Ultimately, Issue One says that some lives are more valuable than others. It says that your life’s value is determined by your what you earn at the time of a tragedy. It says that Arkansans on juries can’t hear the facts and award a family $1 million dollars for the abuse of their child who was left brain damaged or the neglect of their elderly mother in a nursing home. Issue One is one more step in devaluing life in a culture where we simply can’t afford any more slips down that slope.

Family Council Action Committee announced a few weeks ago that it would campaign against Issue 1, because the amendment puts a dollar value on human life.

We have written in the past about the unintended consequences of measures like Issue 1.

Family Council has never opposed responsible lawsuit reforms. As far back as 2003, we did not oppose general malpractice reform measures passed by the legislature. That same year, however, we did oppose a proposal that could have given an unfair advantage to nursing homes over good care for residents.

Some nursing home owners simply don’t want to spend the money necessary to provide quality care. They cut staff, reduce services, compromise care, and let people suffer. Most families have a story about a loved one who was neglected or mistreated in a nursing home. The fear of a lawsuit may be all that keeps some nursing homes in line. Issue 1 removes that threat. If that goes away, our elderly nursing home residents will suffer even more.

You can read  the entire op-ed by Rose Mimms here.

Photo Credit: By MediaPhoto.Org [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

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