Breaking: All three Kansas abortion clinics have failed health inspections, do not meet licensing requirements
I read this glorious point to ponder by pro-abort Robin Marty at RH Reality Check the other day:
All of this time, we thought South Dakota would be the first state to unofficially go “abortion free”…. Turns out Kansas may beat it to the punch.
It turns out Marty may be right.
The Kansas City Star is reporting this afternoon that 2 of the 3 abortion mills in Kansas have apparently failed health department inspections and do not meet the new licensing criteria:
Kansas health regulators said today that the abortion clinics they’ve inspected so far have failed to meet the requirements to get a license under a law that takes effect Friday.
The agency refused to identify the clinics.
However, the state has already notified Aid for Women in Kansas City, KS, that it would not be licensed under the new law. That clinic has not been inspected, but the decision was based on its written application.
Planned Parenthood of Overland Park was inspected last week, and officials there could not be reached for comment early today.
“Those applicants to date that have undergone a full initial review have failed to meet the minimum health and safety standards…,” KDHE Secretary Robert Moser said in a statement.
While the Star only mentions 2 clinics, the 3rd, Center for Women’s Health, was scheduled for an inspection yesterday, June 22.
So it appears all 3 have failed their inspections. But this does not necessarily mean they’ll be shut down. Back to the Star:
The agency said it will continue to work with applicants and provide follow-up inspections if it appears that the areas of noncompliance can be worked out….
Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said his agency has not been licensed yet. He reiterated that the inspection results indicated that his agency will be in full compliance on or by Friday.
Brownlie said he has had communications with the state, but would not disclose any details. He said he would honor the state’s desire to keep the proceedings confidential for the time being.
Haha. Of course Browlie will “honor” keeping the general public from finding out how exactly his clinic failed its inspection.
The backstory: On May 16 pro-life Governor Sam Brownback signed a law regulating the state’s abortion clinics. Per the Associated Press:
Kansas will require annual, unannounced inspections of abortion clinics, impose new health and safety rules specifically for them and prevent them from using telemedicine systems to dispense pregnancy-terminating drugs….
The new law takes effect July 1….
Along with mandating annual inspections, the new law directs the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to write standards for exits, lighting, bathrooms and equipment. KDHE would issue annual licenses, have the power to fine clinics and could go to court to shut them down.
KDHE was quick to act. According to the Kansas City Star, June 21:
KS officials have taken only a few weeks to draft new abortion clinic regulations and plan to decide by July whether to give the state’s 3 clinics the licenses they need to continue operating….
The new law… gives the department the power to issue fines or go to court to shut clinics down for violating the new standards….
[O]n May 26 – 10 days after the legislation was signed by the governor – the department told the clinics that new regulations would be take effect in July.
A June 9 letter said the clinics would know whether they were licensed by July 1 and came with a copy of new regulations. A June 13 letter said revised regulations would be issued within days.
[Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri CEO Peter] Brownlie said Planned Parenthood received its copy Monday [June 20]….
While clinic owners are complaining the new regs are “ridiculous,” they were drawn from National Abortion Federation standards.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
While I can’t view what restrictions the state places on “exits, lighting, bathrooms and equipment.” I imagine it is very similar to how Virginia has gone about trying to ban-through-regulation abortion. The clinics have to have rooms x by y size, hallways the size of freeway lanes and closets within closets.
The law takes effect friday and the clinics were informed of the regulations the monday prior. “Pilate said the clinic hardly had a chance to comply with new temporary regulations because it received them from state regulators Monday.” Structural changes and the clinics have a week to comply. Doesn’t sound like a scincere attempt at regulating, seems more of an attempt to quickly close down the clinics.
But that’s what it’s about so thee isn’t really a discrepency.
Continuing evidence that the mantra which claims the abortion industry cares so much about “safe” medical practices for women (supposedly in marked contrast to those dark times before legalization when abortion mills were unsafe) is a bunch of bull.
Pro-life folks know this is the case. But here is obvious evidence for the general public.
At first I was hopeful the clinics would be shut down permanently. But it is still important to document how the clinics were not in compliance with even the so-called standards of Abortion regulators.
I think the point, Volunteer, was that these as basic safety measures that should have *already* been in place. These are (supposedly) safe medical clinics that preform surgeries in which loss of blood is expected, anestheic, including generals, is/are used, and where there is a reasonable expectation that emergent medical attention may eventually be required. If these places really *were* safe and patient centered they would have already *had* things like gurney accessibility, pulse ox machines in working order, and soap in the bathrooms. The very notion that they are complaining they only had X amount of time to become compliant just proves the point that, as they are practicing, they need to be shut down as unsafe!
I think the point, Jespren, of the entire charade is to close the clinic by requiring, amongst other regulations, trivial structural changes to the clinics with as little notification as possible.
Volunteer, I like how you ignored my point there, let me say it a different way. These clinics haven’t been inspected in many cases for years. They claim they do not need outside oversite, they claim they are safe and follow all needed safety measures. If they did indeed need no outsite oversite and follow all needed safety measures then a surprise visit by inspectors even *without* any notification of specifications would be passed, the regulations aren’t any different than those in place for other clinics that do medical procedures! The fact that they are upset that they are going to get shut down because they didn’t have time to make “trival structual changes” just shows they have been lying through their teeth and *need* to be shut down asap until such a time as they can proform surgies in a safe manner. And size of rooms and hallways are not “trival”, it’s so enough people and/or emergency equipment can fit into the room/hallways to provide emergency support. The lack of such has led to deaths in the past. And certainly will again if left unadressed. The reason why surgery suits are so big in medical clinics is that’s how big they need to be! It’s not like an office visit where you need enough room for a patient, a doctor, and maybe a nurse. You need enough space to manuver an unconscious or otherwise sedated patient, a doctor, a nurse, a pulse/blood pressure/pulse ox machine, an IV set up, a sterile tray for instruments, a defibulator, storage space for sterile sponges, bandages, emergency medicine/medicinal supplies like an intubation kit or ambu bag, and then any still have enough room to occomodate extra personell in the case of emergency or, which takes up even more room, outside emergency personell who are going to have a separate gurney and medical bags. What’s more there needs to be enough space that no one is tripping or bumping into any of those things as they move about the room. These size requirements have been common practice in ambulatory surgery clinics for many years. If an abortion clinic was up to safety snuff of their own accord then they would have already implemented these requirments, and therefore would pass these inspections. If any other surgery clinic was found without such basic safety amenities as proper access to the patient there would be outrage among the populous and they would demand it get shut down until they could fix the problem. No one would be arguing that they should be allowed to continue to preform unsafe elective surgies simply because they had been operating under unsafe conditions for years, no, they would point out that they had been operating *unsafely* for years and *should* have been shut down years earlier. It’s only because this is the all sacred abortion clinic that it is acceptable practice to reutinely put their patient’s life in jeparody because they want to practice out of an unaltered low rent building that used to be a store front or was intentionally built to be deficient.
Hi Jespren,
Good points. Ironically I have read that illegal abortions, most of which were performed in doctor’s offices and under false pretenses in hospitals, may have been considerably safer than legal ones today. Doctors, who did most of the illegal abortions, had to be extremely careful, take their time, and be selective of what patients they took. Any mistake meant a prison term. They could not openly run mills and not concern themselves with patient injury or death.
Also, legalizing did little to enhance equality. The rathole abortion mills that have been shut down in recent years did not service the CEO’s daughters and wives, or Hollywood celebrities. No, these ladies did what they have always done, go to their own doctors or facilities in another state or country to have their abortions quietly and discreetly done, under the best and safest circumstance. Everyone else, especially the poor, go to the ratholes.
Okay, I’ll pull a specific example. The new kansas regulation includes a need for private toilet facilities for staff. Their changing room must include some obvious items like storage for clothes and a sink but it also requires private facilities. There is no need for that other than someone scanning the site, noting what’s missing, and adding it to a new regulation.
Anyways, we don’t know why they were closed. Maybe they didnt have private toilets and showers for their facilty, maybe their surgery rooms really were too small.
Uh,Volunteer,
Go to any hospital or outpatient facility and you will find patients and staff have seperate toilet and shower facilities. Can you imagine as a patient having hospital staff walk into your room and use your bathroom facilities and shower? Or patients walking in and out of the staff lounge for the same reason? There are public restrooms and toilets in the hospital for visitors which may also be used by staff if necessary, i.e. using the public bathroom on the floor if the staff lounge bathroom is occupied. Check it out yourself if you don’t believe me.
You examples are pursuasive. Having staff come in my hospital bed room is obnoxious and patients entering some kind of staff lounge is interruptive. If only there was another option, like a restroom in a hallway between the waiting room and the lounge for clinics that do not see a high volume of clients or have a large staff.
It’s inane to require such trivialities as seperate toilets. A scrub area is an obvious necessity. Lifting a burden of sharing a common hall restroom is not.
Vounteer,
As well as obnoxious and interruptive there is also the question of patient privacy, confidentiality, cleanliness and sanitation.
As far as I know bathroom facilities must be provided for both staff and patients, whatever the patient and staff census. Even my beauty salon has a seperate lounge and bathroom for their staff and a public restroom for clients.
Also, if I am an abortion patient in my patient gown and peri pad, possibly nauseous, I would certainly appreciate a little more privacy than prancing up and down the hall with staff and visitors, waiting my turn to use the bathroom.
Mary you beat me to it. I was going to say I can see one immediate reason for separate patient bathrooms: hygene. On average you lose more blood after an abortion than you do after a vaginal birth. I know after both my births I was bleeding like a stuck pig and it was just ‘normal’ postpartum flow. Pad or not I could not get from the bed to the toliet without covering the floor with red drops. Okay in a separated recovery area with a constant attendant cleaning, or a private recovery room cleaned between patients, but can you imagine having to toddle down the common area hallway, dripping blood all the way, to use a common restroom? You couldn’t clean fast enough! You’d have to have a nurse (or janitor) follow each and every patient every time they went to the bathroom to clean up the blood before someone else stepped in it! As for nurses having a private bathroom/changing area, they are often bloody from helping post operative women (or the operation itself), having a separate bathroom for them to enter so as not to run into other patients or staff while they are so besmeared makes sense to me! Remember, this isn’t a doctor’s office where people are getting random sports physicals and vaccinations and maybe a pap smear that they need to go to the bathroom after, this is a surgery clinic, whose patients and staff are frequently ‘biohazards’ as a matter of course.
I can personally attest, having been wheeled from the ER enterance up to L&D after my 1st birth, leaving a trail of blood the whole way, it’s monumentally embarrassing. If I had to face the looks on people’s faces (or even just what I imagined their looks to be) to travel to a common area bathroom whilst trailing blood, i’d almost rather wet the bed!