By Dave Andrusko

Last week we wrote about the raid by FBI and Drug Enforcement agents on the clinic of Philadelphia abortionist Keith Gosnell which resulted in Gosnell's license being temporarily suspended. The latest is summarized in the lead sentence from a story in yesterday's News Journal of Delaware;

"Allegations against a Pennsylvania doctor about abortions performed in Philadelphia are so horrific that he had his license to practice medicine temporarily suspended in Delaware on Tuesday, according to state medical officials."

"Our mission is to protect the public and today, this emergency action is one of the ways we do that," Delaware Board of Medical Practice President Raymond L. Moore Sr. said. "Based upon the severity of violations alleged in the complaint, and based upon the suspension of Dr. Gosnell's license in the state of Pennsylvania, we have concluded that the suspension of Dr. Gosnell's license to practice medicine in Delaware is necessary to protect the public until we can fully hear the matter."

On Tuesday members of the Delaware Board of Medical Practice voting  to temporarily suspend the license of abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

What stands out goes beyond what authorities discovered last week: "deplorable and unsanitary" conditions, "including blood on the floor and parts of aborted fetuses in jars, according to the state agency that shut it down," according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The State Board of Medicine "also said an unlicensed worker routinely administered prescription painkillers to patients, including one who developed a fatal heart arrhythmia in November after receiving multiple doses."

It's that "By many accounts, Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic has operated for years in ways that raised red flags," according to the Inquirer's Marie McCullough. If you can stomach the story, you can read it at www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/86127957.html under the headline "Clinic Fell Through Cracks."

You learn in the story that he was sued twice for malpractice. "The 2005 case, which alleged a patient suffered a perforated uterus and bowel, was dropped," McCullough writes. "The 2008 case, which alleged a patient had convulsions after receiving the wrong anesthesia, was settled." But no big deal. ""In my experience, two cases in eight years is not a lot," explained supervising prosecutor Kerry Maloney of the bureau of professional and occupations affairs. "That's not alarming."

But had prosecutors checked malpractice suits prior to 2002 (when the law requiring doctors to report malpractice suits kicked in), they "would have seen that Gosnell was named in eight more malpractice suits dating back to 1981, including one that involved a death. The patient died of a perforated uterus and bloodstream infection. The case was settled in 2002 for an undisclosed sum."

And that doesn't even go into the $10,000 McCullough says Gosnell paid in 2007 "to settle a civil lawsuit for performing an abortion on a minor without parental consent. As a violation of the state's abortion control law, this would have triggered a suspension of his medical license pending an investigation."

The full story which has many more grim details. My point is a simple one. Whenever we make an effort to require real reporting requirements from abortion clinics and to require abortionists to meet medical care standards, we hear how we are "targeting" abortion clinics.

No, what we--and many legislators who are not necessarily pro-life--are trying to accomplish is to prevent behavior just like this.

Part One
Part Two