Dangerous Conditions in Whole Woman's Health Abortion Clinics Reason Enough for Health and Safety Standards, Notes AUL

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has released a witness list in advance of Thursday's Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Neil Gorsuch, which includes Ms. Amy Hagstrom Miller, the President & CEO of the national abortion chain Whole Woman's Health. In light of Ms. Hagstrom Miller's inclusion, Americans United for Life Staff Counsel Deanna Wallace observed that "a recent AUL report titled Unsafe details that seven different Whole Woman's Health abortion clinics in three states have been cited for health and safety violations in the last eight years."

Whole Woman's Health abortion clinics in Texas were at the center of the recent Supreme Court case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, a legal challenge to medically endorsed health and safety standards that are routinely applied to facilities performing other invasive, outpatient surgeries. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that Texas had not proven the regulations were necessary to protect women, but indicated that future health and safety standards would be allowed if it was proven that they were necessary to preserve the health and safety of women.

AUL's legal team answered the challenge for proof by releasing Unsafe: How The Public Health Crisis in America's Abortion Clinics Endangers Women.  AUL's latest investigative report documents that 227 abortion providers in 32 states were cited for more than 1,400 health and safety deficiencies between 2008 and 2016 and details the often horrific conditions in many abortion clinics.

Notably, Unsafe exposes the dangerous conditions in Whole Woman's Health abortion clinics.

Wallace observed: "The abortion industry has long relied upon the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, to protect its profit margins by insulating it from common sense health and safety regulations. This is especially apparent in last summer's Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, where the Supreme Court once again acted as a self-appointed Abortion Control Board, invalidating Texas' abortion clinic safety requirements."

"Our analysis shows that seven Whole Woman's Health abortion facilities in three states have violated state health and safety standards. These violations include failing to ensure a safe and sanitary environment; failing to document patient records and maintain their confidentiality; failing to ensure staff are properly trained; allowing unlicensed or unqualified staff to provide patient care; maintaining expired medications and medical supplies; failing to adopt, follow, and review health and safety protocols; failing to purchase and maintain required equipment; and failing to properly handle medications. Interestingly, Whole Woman's Health of Beaumont, a Texas clinic that closed when the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Texas regulations, was cited for 8 out of the 10 most common health and safety violations discovered in AUL's research."

"Ms. Hagstrom Miller represents an abortion industry that cares more about its profits than about the women they put at risk by violating health and safety standards or the children whose lives they end."

For more on UNSAFE, click here.

For more on the Constitutional issues impacting the life issue, visit AUL's project SCOTUS 101.

For more on the health risks of abortion for women, click here.

SOURCE Americans United for Life

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