New abortion clinic regulations signed into law Thursday by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell are already under fire from abortion providers, who claim that meeting hospital-type standards for examination room size, hallway width, medical procedures and record-keeping will put many of them out of business.
Good. Horror stories in Pennsylvania and Maryland provide graphic examples of why higher standards are needed.
On Dec. 13, Pearl Gosnell pleaded guilty to performing two illegal late-term abortions in her husband’s filthy west Philadelphia clinic, which authorities described as a “house of horrors.” Kermit Gosnell is charged with killing seven babies already born alive by severing their tiny spinal cords with scissors and killing one of his patients by administering her an overdose of painkillers
Now two other physicians accused of botching an 18-year-old New Jersey woman’s abortion last year were indicted for murder by a Cecil County, Maryland grand jury after police discovered 36 fetuses – 13 of which were considered viable (able to live outside the womb) under Maryland law – in a clandestine Elkton clinic not listed on the American Woman’s Services website.
Dr. Steve Chase Brigham of Voorhees, N.J., who was ordered to stop practicing medicine last year by the Maryland Board of Physicians, and Dr. Nicola Irene Riley of Salt Lake City, Utah were both charged and arrested and are currently awaiting extradition.
Local prosecutors believe this is the first time that doctors are being charged with abortion-related murder in Maryland, the Cecil Whig reports. The grisly discovery was made after the young woman, then 21 weeks pregnant, went to Brigham’s clinic in Voorhees, where an abortion-inducing drug was administered. She was then told to drive herself to the Elkton clinic where the procedure would be completed.
The transfer was designed to circumvent New Jersey law – which does not allow abortion of viable fetuses, but does allow chemical abortions – and Maryland law – which does not allow the injection of drugs to render a fetus unviable, but does allow late-term abortions.
However, their plan was foiled when the young woman’s uterus ruptured and Drs. Brigham and Riley drove her to the emergency room of nearby Union Hospital and reportedly refused to give hospital staff needed information while their nearly unconscious patient sat slumped and bleeding in a wheelchair. She was later transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
A subsequent police search of the Elkton clinic revealed the frozen fetuses, including one aborted infant estimated to be at 36 weeks gestation – or just one week shy of what obstetricians consider full-term.
In a ludicrous attempt to put a positive spin on the abortionists’ criminal behavior, blogger Jezebel argues: “No doubt anti-abortion advocates will take the case against Brigham and Riley as an argument for further crackdowns on abortion rights — but it’s really an argument for the opposite.”
No, Jezebel, it’s really an argument for further crackdowns on quack butchers who kill for a living.
