January 31, 2011

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By Dave Andrusko

Good evening and thanks for being part of the discussion. Part Two examines how pro-abortionists are never satiated. Part Three is a very encouraging victory for Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), we review a federal judge's decision overturning ObamaCare. Dr. David Prentice updates us on potentially enormous breakthrough while Wesley Smith laments "Dutch Suicide Advocates Set Up Clinic of Death." To do the best job possible I need your feedback on both Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.

The News Journal of Delaware reports this morning that the National Abortion Federation (NAF) has suspended the membership of Atlantic Women's Medical Services, the Delaware abortion provider that employed Kermit Gosnell, charged by a Philadelphia Grand Jury with eight counts of murder.

A NAF representative emailed reporter Sean O'Sullivan that the decision followed a meeting of the executive committee of NAF's board of directors. The Grand Jury had recommended the suspension in its 261-page report.

"The suspension also applies to clinics that are affiliated with Atlantic in Louisiana, according to the statement," O'Sullivan wrote.

NAF said the suspension means it will no longer refer patients to the Delaware or Louisiana facilities, nor, according to O'Sullivan, will either be listed on NAF's website under "find a provider." NAF cited what it said was a lack of jurisdiction or authority as reasons it did not shut the clinic down.

According to the grand jury report, "Remarkably, despite Gosnell's long time association with Atlantic, [owner Leroy] Brinkley only produced three files for patients seen by Gosnell at Brinkley's clinic."

Today's story is extremely revealing on several counts.

First, "State agencies in Delaware do not require or conduct regular sanitary or safety inspections of abortion clinics, and state officials this week could not say whether Atlantic has any of the same deficiencies that were documented at Gosnell's West Philadelphia Women's Medical Society clinic or at the Delta Clinic," O'Sullivan wrote. " NAF is believed to be one of the only outside organizations to evaluate safety and sanitary conditions at the Atlantic clinics as a part of its membership requirements."

As noted previously [www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Jan2011/nv012111.html], according to the Grand Jury, Gosnell applied for membership in NAF shortly after the death of Karnamaya Mongar, the woman whose murder Gosnell is charged with.

The evaluator from NAF saw all the problems. "It was the worst abortion clinic she had ever inspected," the Grand Jury wrote. "Of course, she rejected Gosnell's application. She just never told anyone in authority about all the horrible, dangerous things she had seen. Bureaucratic inertia is not exactly news.

We understand that. But we think this was something more. We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion."

Second, Gosnell worked one day a week at Atlantic in Wilmington, Delaware, in addition to operating his own Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia.

"The grand jury report found that he routinely referred women who were too far along in their pregnancy to get an abortion under Delaware law to his West Philadelphia clinic," O'Sullivan reports.

"Philadelphia prosecutors and the grand jury report indicate Gosnell would sometimes take payment for the late-term abortions at Atlantic and even begin the procedure in Delaware by administering labor-inducing drugs, with instructions for the patient to report to his West Philadelphia clinic the next day."

This bears an uncanny resemblance to the alleged behavior of abortionist Steven Chase Brigham. "New Jersey regulators suspended his license after finding that [Brigham] was starting late-term abortions in that state, then ferrying patients to Maryland to complete the procedures in an apparent bid to skirt New Jersey's more restrictive abortion laws," the Associated Press reported.

A complaint filed by New Jersey officials in September detailed Brigham's abortion procedure. In a typical incident, a pregnant woman went to Brigham's Voorhees, New Jersey, clinic, where he dilated her cervix and "administered a drug that killed the fetus," according to the AP. The woman was told to drive to Elkton, Maryland, the next day, where the now-dead baby was dismembered and removed.

After the scheme was discovered, investigators searched the Elkton clinic, "where a chest freezer held about 35 late-term fetuses," the Courier-Post reported.

Late last week Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said his office had launched a "wide-ranging" investigation of Gosnell," O'Sullivan reported "to see if he broke any state laws or regulations when he was working at the Atlantic Women's Medical Services clinic in Wilmington."

Biden comments came following a Thursday news conference by a pro-life group held outside Atlantic Women's Medical Services that called for an inquiry.

O'Sullivan reported that "Biden declined to say directly if the investigation is scrutinizing practices at Atlantic but said his office is 'looking at a range of issues.' Biden said people in his office are concerned by things related to Delaware in the Philadelphia grand jury report, 'and we want to get to the bottom of it.'"

Biden said, "Like most of us, I'm disturbed by the allegations that were handed up by the grand jury in Philadelphia."

Part Two
Part Three