New York State and Today’s “Back Alley” Abortions
This past February, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards tweeted out a series of tweets in the form of cue cards with the hashtag #whatwomenwant for Valentine’s Day. One of the cue cards said “safe and legal abortions”. Well, if you live in the state of New York abortions are legal but there is plenty of evidence that safe abortions are not a priority with the New York State Health Department.
New York State has one of the highest abortion rates in the country. According the Chiaroscuro Foundation there were 1,145,261 abortions in New York City between the years 2000-2012 and a total of 1,515,108 in the state of New York. There are an estimated 225 abortion providers in New York State. There are 25 licensed clinics that have had inspections but without regularity over a 12 year span. Eight of the 25 clinics have had no inspections at all and 17 of those that were inspected have deplorable violations.
Do you remember the Kermit Gosnell case in Philadelphia? Gosnell’s clinic hadn’t been inspected for 15 years until it was raided on a drug investigation and revealed horrid conditions that were both illegal and extremely harmful to the women that were provided abortion services. Yet, the state of New York refuses to make sure that women are provided safe care in their medical facilities. Are there more people like Kermit Gosnell in the state of New York snipping newborn babies’ spinal cords or not properly monitoring women under anesthesia? Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal based on the “back alley” unsafe accusations of women having harmful abortions. Today it seems as if legal abortion clinics are now the new “back alleys” of abortion rights.
Greg Pfundstein, President of The Chiaroscuro Foundation commented, “It doesn’t matter where you stand on the issue of abortion, this is a gross failure of our public health system and puts women’s safety at risk.” The state of New York requires restaurants to be inspected and graded every year and now by law requires tanning salons to be inspected every other year. Yet, the state Health Department does not require inspections for abortion clinics that perform medical procedures on women. In fact, New York refuses to list the names of the 17 clinics that have violations so that women can choose a safe facility. Where’s the outrage by Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood on making sure women’s safety is the priority of abortions performed in New York?
The fact is legal abortion at whatever cost to the safety of women is the ultimate goal of abortion in this country. If safety was truly a priority Planned Parenthood, the number one provider of abortion services, would be campaigning for annual inspections in all abortion facilities, licensed or unlicensed. Women might want legal abortions but they certainly are not fighting for safe ones.
The DC Abortion Fund has been raising money to cover the cost of abortions for women who cannot afford it. As a token of thanks for donations they are giving out coat hanger pendants. The pendant is supposed to represent the dangerous abortions that will take place if abortion ever becomes illegal in this country. New York State has proven that dangerous, unsafe abortions are happening under the legal right to choose abortion. The coat hanger pendant now represents what the majority of abortion facilities really are in America- back alley type facilities without any enforcement of safety regulations.
What do pro-choice women really want? Safe and legal abortions or the right to kill the unborn without restrictions to even the life of the mother? Congratulations, Pro-Abortionists. You now represent the new coat hanger back alley abortions, the only difference is there is a roof and unsanitary and outdated medical equipment.
To help make sure there are no more Kermit Gosnells and that states like New York be required to enforce the law on inspections on abortion facilities, go to IndieGoGo and donate to the Gosnell Movie Project.
